On December 3, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center report was cited by The Wash: A study published by the D.C. Policy Center analyzed the changes in median income in the Washington region from 1980 to 2017. The study found that, “between 2000 and 2017, the most notable change in the maps is that,…
On November 26, 2024, Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin was quoted by Fox 5: Chelsea Coffin is the director of the education policy initiative at the D.C. Policy Center, a nonprofit think tank. She agreed that the enrollment increase is great news for the both the school district and the city…
On November 6, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: “Republican legislators have complained about certain actions in D.C.,” including speed cameras, the granting of voting rights in local elections for noncitizens and returning citizens, said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, which studies…
On November 1, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center report was referenced by The Washington Informer: According to the D.C. Policy Center, an area is considered a food desert when the walking distance to a grocery store is over 0.5 miles, over 40% of the household has no vehicle, and the median household income…
On November 6, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by WAMU: Though Yesim Sayin, executive director of nonprofit D.C. Policy Center, says the federal workforces’ economic importance has “greatly diminished” – in part because of remote work (In D.C., federal buildings use only about 12% of their office space on average). “It’s not…
On October 29, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center testimony was cited by The National Law Review: In addition, the time and expense of complying with the CON requirements is enough of a barrier to potentially send independent physician practices across the border into Maryland and Virginia.[2] Read More: D.C.’s Certificate of Need (CON)…
On October 3, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center report was cited by Greater Greater Washington: According to the DC Policy Center, the Northeast and Southeast quadrants of DC are not only the hottest, but are home to people most sensitive to high temperatures, because of age, underlying conditions, lack of health insurance,…
On October 12, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center report was cited in the Georgetown Voice: A D.C. Policy Center report found that northeast and southeast D.C. have the highest levels of environmental pollution in the District, in part due to the disproportionate presence of highly polluting businesses located near these neighborhoods. Read More: “Fighting for our lives”:…
On October 15, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center report was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Both the DC Policy Center and the DC Fiscal Policy Institute have papers on how ATE, an ostensibly “neutral” technology, can be applied in ways that create inequality. Read More: Smile, you’re on camera: A deep dive on automated traffic enforcement data Additional…
On October 1, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center report was cited by Technical.ly: DC’s entrepreneurial landscape is bustling, but signs suggest it’s starting to weaken, according to an annual report by the DC Policy Center. For instance, there have been higher closure rates and slow growth in new business applications. Read More: DC weekly…
On September 16, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by The DC Line: According to the D.C. Policy Center’s most recent “State of D.C. Schools” annual report, 44% of students were chronically absent in the 2022-23 school year, with absenteeism rates still significantly higher than pre-pandemic levels, which stood at 29% during…
On September 24, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by WUSA9: “[These] office buildings are like nuclear waste buried in the land, you have to pay to get rid of them,” Yesim Sayin, from the DC Policy Center, said. Sayin didn’t sugarcoat her thoughts on Downtown’s current state. “People used to…
On August 8, 2024, Director of the Rivlin Initiative Daniel Burge was quoted in the Washington Times: Daniel Burge, the economic policy director for the D.C. Policy Center, said better jobs and schools, more housing options and lower taxes contributed to the exodus. Mr. Burge also pointed out that wealthier households generally…
On Thursday August 1, 2024, Director of Policy and Research Emilia Calma was quoted by DC News Now: “If you can actually see in all the maps there’s a really stark line where Rock Creek Park ends,” said Emilia Calma, with the DC Policy Center. Calma authored the report, “Chart of the…
On July 17, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by Axios: The city’s heat exposure is significantly higher east of Rock Creek Park, according to the D.C. Policy Center. Read More: D.C. heat island effect among worst in U.S.Additional reading: Chart of the week: D.C.’s heat exposure index shows the impact of severe heat…
On July 17, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center article was cited in The Georgetowner: The D.C. Policy Center wrote: “The so-called ‘mansion tax’ would separate class 1 properties into classes 1a and 1b. Properties assessed above $2.5 million would be deemed class 1b and would be subject to a $1.00 tax per…
On July 17, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by WTOP: The highest heat exposure scores, according to a D.C. Policy Center analysis last year, are in Wards 1, 5 and 6. Read More: Heat islands don’t only happen in DC. Here are the neighborhoods in Fairfax County that are hotter than…
On June 20, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by the Washington Post: Roughly 18 out of every 100 ninth graders will earn a college degree within six years of their high school graduation, according to an estimate from the D.C. Policy Center, a local think tank. Read More: D.C. names interim state education…
On Wednesday June 26, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by WJLA: According to the D.C. Policy Center, in the 2022-2023 school year, more than 40 percent of students in D.C. were chronically absent. Read More: DC Council hears public opinions on bills to combat student absenteeismAdditional reading: State of D.C. Schools, 2022-23:…
On June 17, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by Axios: Revenue from the new tax, which got final approval from the D.C. Council last week, will essentially “be driven by a small subset of neighborhoods, primarily in the Northwest,” the D.C. Policy Center wrote. The increase will give the District $5.7…
On June 13, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by WUSA9: According to the DC Policy Center, Ward 8 is classified as a food desert due to several factors: the distance to supermarkets, limited car availability, and low household income levels. Read More: Navigating dinner in a food desert: Ward 8 residents fighting…
On June13, 2024, A D.C. Policy Center article was cited by Urban Turf: The DC Policy Center recently put out a chart looking at the neighborhoods that have the highest volume of homes affected by the new tax. “Georgetown is home to the most properties assessed above $2.5 million, at 515 properties, or 20…
On May 31, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center Chart of the Week was cited by Urban Turf: The DC Policy Center has mapped the DC neighborhoods that would most be affected by a proposed “mansion tax” for the city. On Friday, the DC Policy Center put out a chart looking at the neighborhoods that…
On May 29, 2024, A D.C. Policy Center report was cited by the Washington Examiner: As Bowser and Mendelson seek to raise revenue for the city through tax increases, a report published by the D.C. Policy Center found that the district lost approximately $40 million in revenue from fare evasion during fiscal 2019. Read…
On May 30, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center report was cited by Greater Greater Washington: At the same time, the rise of teleworking, decentralized employment, and suburb-to-suburb commuting all reduce the need for transit infrastructure to focus so heavily on the downtown core. Read More: Not just downtown: DC needs more rapid transit between neighborhoodsAdditional…
On May 2, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted in the Washington Post: Sayin said the focus made sense — and so did the budget cuts in her view, describing D.C.’s fiscal outlook as “very scary” without significant change. Putting the city’s limited eggs in the downtown basket, she said, was…
On May 3, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center report was cited by The Eagle: Ward 3 was a location largely for white-only housing from 1933 to 1968, according to the D.C. Policy Center. Read More: 1,700 affordable housing units to be added along Wisconsin Avenue Additional reading: Mapping segregation in D.C.
On May 2, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by The Washington Informer: A recent study by the D.C. Policy Center found that while the District pays principals and teachers higher-than-average salaries, the ratio between principal and teacher pay is lower than the national average in surrounding states, including Maryland, Virginia,…
On May 5, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by the Washington Post: There are other reasons to celebrate: More D.C. students are finishing high school and, after years of decline, the most recent data shows that the share of students enrolling in college saw a modest improvement in 2022. But the city…
On April 30, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was interviewed on the I Hate Politics Podcast. The conversation centered on the proposed fiscal year 2025 budget, the challenges faced by the Council and the OCFO, and long term concerns for the District’s finances. Listen here: I Hate the News April 30, 2024 Read…
On April 17, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by The Eagle: In 2017, the D.C. Policy Center found that food deserts — geographic areas where people have limited access to healthy food — make up about 11 percent of D.C.’s total area and are concentrated in the neighborhoods of Anacostia, Barry Farms,…
On April 16, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by WJLA: According to the D.C. Policy Center, city police average an annual of more than 2,000 juvenile arrests under the age of 18. Read More: Dramatic decline in DC’s violent crime despite rise in youth carjacking arrests Additional reading: D.C. Voices: Juvenile…
On April 11, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by the Washington Times: “In the past, the presence of federal workers boosted the District’s economy and made the city recession-proof,” Yesim Sayin, executive director of the nonpartisan D.C. Policy Center, told The Times. “These numbers show that the presence of the…
On April 9, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted in the Washington Times: “Businesses no longer consider D.C. a safe haven protected from inflation by the federal government,” Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, told The Washington Times. “This is a big change, because in the past the…
On April 4, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was interviewed on WAMU’s All Things Considered: Yesim Sayin is the Executive Director of the D.C. Policy Center, and told WAMU that D.C. is not out of the woods yet. “We are not projecting a revenue growth that’s greater than 2 percent over the next…
On March 31, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted in Forbes: Yesim Sayin, head of the D.C. Policy Center and another member of the Tax Revision Commission, echoed Williams’ point, noting that when looking at the businesses, firms, and other employers who would be hit by the proposed tax hike, “their relocation decisions…
On March 26, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center Chart of the Week was cited by the Commercial Observer: After a brief period of COVID-induced flight, more people have been moving into Washington, D.C., than out of it, even as the surrounding inner suburbs have lost population, according to an analysis of recent census data…
On March 25, 2024, D.C. Policy Center research was cited in Axios: Read More: D.C. population growth outpaces Beltway suburbs Additional reading: Chart of the Week: D.C.’s population growth outpaced the region’s inner counties between 2022 and 2023, but some of the region’s suburbs and exurbs grew even faster.
On March 15, 2024, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by Marketplace: “A lot of people have moved out of the region because it’s high cost — expensive — realizing that they can work for the federal government and not necessarily be in the region,” explained Yesim Sayin, head of the D.C. Policy…
On March 15, 2024, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted in the Washington Post: Overall, downtown’s retail vacancy rate is 22 percent, a bit more than double what it was in 2019, the year before the pandemic, according to the DowntownDC BID. As for office space, the downtown vacancy…
On March 12, 2024, Education Policy Institute Director Chelsea Coffin discussed State of D.C. Schools 2022-23 on the I Hate Politics podcast: “The areas where D.C. has returned to pre-pandemic levels are in things like educator retention, which was lower than national levels pre-pandemic, and suspensions, which again D.C. was somewhat of…
A March 8, 2024, article in The Washington Times cited the Education Policy Initiative’s 2022-23 State of D.C. Schools report: In its annual report released Friday with city officials, the D.C. Policy Center found that even as many city teenagers missed at least 10% of the academic year, the high school graduation rate rose…
On March 8, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center report was cited by the Washington Examiner: According to the D.C. Policy Center, Washington public schools are going to see a 13% decline in funding just after losing COVID stimulus funds. Schools used these funds to hire more employees even as enrollment fell. On average, elementary schools and…
On March 8, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited by WTOP: A D.C. Policy Center report found many sessions feature three or fewer students. Read More: DC’s high-impact tutoring programs are also improving school attendance Additional reading: Landscape of high-impact tutoring in D.C.’s public schools, 2021-22
On March 7, 2024, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted in the Washington Post: Yesim Sayin, the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, who is also a member of the Tax Revision Commission, said that one area of disagreement among commissioners was a proposed business activity tax —…
On February 20, 2024, The Fiscal Future of Public Education in the District of Columbia was cited in The D.C. Line: Bowser and Ferebee may have chosen to understate the fiscal hurt coming hard and soon to public schools. However, the D.C. Policy Center provided a klieg light with a report —…
On March 6th, 2024, Chelsea Coffin, Director of the Education Policy Initiative, was quoted in a Fox 5 DC segment: According to the D.C. Policy Center, 44% of students were considered chronically absent. “It’s highest for students who are economically disadvantaged and in a similar category to students who are at risk in…
On March 7, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted in Axios: “There’s a whole new perception among parents that missing school is OK. That they can make it up,” said Yesim Sayin, the head of the D.C. Policy Center, which convened a group of 55 students, parents, and teachers to study…
On March 5, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center report was referenced in a Baltimore Banner article: In 2018, a D.C. Policy Center analysis found that drivers moving through predominantly Black areas of Washington, D.C., were 17 times more likely to receive a moving violation than drivers moving through predominantly white areas. “These disparities indicate…
The D.C. Policy Center was mentioned in an article on PoPville: DME has contracted with a team led by Perkins Eastman including WXY Studio, The D.C. Policy Center, and LINK Strategic Partners to support both studies. Read More: Hey there’s a boundary study happening–how is it affecting YOUR community? Additional reading: The role of…
On March 1, 2024, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted in Politico: It’s not just government workers. Yesim Sayin, who pores through local data from her perch as executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, cited one particularly gobsmacking stat when we spoke this week: “Prior to the pandemic,…
On February 27, 2024, a D.C. Voices article on juvenile justice was cited in a segment on WUSA9: The DC policy center says- juveniles in DC have committed crimes at a rate- double the national average. Read More: DC Juveniles committed crimes double the national average, report says Additional reading: D.C. Voices: Juvenile Justice
On February 27, 2024, a D.C. Voices article on juvenile justice was referenced by WUSA9: According to the DC Policy Center, juveniles commit crimes in D.C. at nearly double the national rate. Read More: DC At-Large Councilmember introduces ‘youth crime prevention’ measures Additional reading: D.C. Voices: Juvenile Justice
The D.C. Policy Center was cited in a BNN article on February 23, 2024: The D.C. Policy Center discusses the surge in budget for District of Columbia Public Schools and public charter schools in Washington D.C., propelled by federal grants such as the Elementary and Secondary Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER). This analysis…
On February 19, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by WTOP: Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said when the extra funding ends, school budgets are projected to “experience a loss of about 15%.” Many of the city’s public charter schools used the funding to hire staff, Sayin…
On February 19, 2024, the D.C. Policy Center was cited in a WTOP article on remote work: According to the D.C. Policy Center, 51% of jobs in the D.C. metro can be performed remotely or with a hybrid arrangement, compared to 37% nationally. Read More: For DC professionals, hybrid doesn’t mean housebound Additional…
On February 16, 2024, a D.C. Voices article was cited by ArentFox Schiff: According to the DC Policy Center, between 2016 and 2022, MPD officers arrested an average of 2,235 juveniles each year, involving youth under the age of 18. Read More: Investment in Youth Violence Prevention Programs in the District of Columbia |…
A February 14, 2024, article in the Washington Informer highlighted the Education Policy Initiative’s report on the impending fiscal cliff for D.C. schools: As outlined in a D.C. Policy Center study titled “The fiscal future of public education in the District of Columbia,” ESSER funded DCPS’ summer programming, teacher training, support for English language…
On February 13, 2024, an Education Policy Initiative report on the potential fiscal cliff for D.C. schools was featured in a Washington Post article: Ferebee’s budget proposal was unveiled on the same day that D.C. Policy Center released a report illustrating just how heavily schools across the city have relied in recent years on…
On February 12, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center chart of the week was cited by Smart Cities Dive: A separate analysis from the D.C. Policy Center shows that Washington, D.C., which collects over $1.1 billion in tax revenue from office buildings, stands to lose millions of dollars in commercial tax revenue from those properties if…
On February 5, 2023, a D.C. Policy Center report was cited by The Hilltop: Between 2016 and 2022, Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers averaged annual arrests of 2,235 juveniles under the age of 18, as reported by the D.C. Policy Center. The juvenile arrest rate in the nation’s capital is nearly double the…
On February 5, 2024, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by Bisnow: “The picture for commercial property is very disconcerting,” D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin told Bisnow in an email. “This is certainly not the bottom.” “Things have deteriorated since [2021],” Sayin wrote. “There has been an uptick in sales of…
On February 2, 2024, a D.C. Voices article was cited by HBCU Sports: According to a report from the D.C. Policy Center, a non-partisan think tank, between 2016 and 2022, the Metropolitan Police Department averaged 2,235 arrests per year under the age of 18. This arrest rate is nearly twice that of across…
On February 2, 2024, the Education Policy Initiative’s report on Equitable Access in D.C. public schools was featured in a WUSA9 segment: A new report by D.C. policy center, a non-partisan think tank, analyzed 25 schools out of 200 in the lottery system that prioritized applications from at-risk students or kids who are experiencing…
On January 31, 2024, an Education Policy Initiative report on Equitable Access in D.C. schools was the subject of a DCist article: The new report supports earlier research by the D.C. Policy Center, which has shown that while the Equitable Access option may only do so much to increase diversity across the…
On January 25, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by Commercial Observer: “[It] is disquieting news for a downtown that’s already ailing,” said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center. “It’s hard to tell what direct impacts this could have on the Gallery Place/Chinatown neighborhood in the years to…
On January 24, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by Bisnow: “Everyone stands to lose,” D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin said. “Tax revenue pays for government support and services that all D.C. residents need or use. So that is a very, very disconcerting, very nerve-wracking picture for me.” Read more: ‘Shocking’…
On January 19, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center publication on food access in D.C. was cited by The Eagle: Food deserts — urban areas where residents have little to no access to affordable or good-quality fresh foods — make up 11 percent of D.C., of which 82 percent is concentrated in Wards…
On January 17, 2024, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by DCist: “Just getting to affordable housing is hard. Getting to affordable housing plus 28 other things on my wish list is even harder,” says Sayin, referring to the additional climate and labor goals attached to Lewis George’s social housing proposal. Read…
On January 9, 2024, a D.C. Policy Center publication on chronic absenteeism in D.C. Public Schools was cited by WJLA: The DC Policy Center called chronic absenteeism one of the greatest challenges for DC Public Schools (DCPS). The latest numbers released from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education show chronic…
On December 24, 2023, Director of the Rivlin Initiative for Economic Policy and Competitiveness Daniel Burge was quoted by Business Insider: “Fewer commuters means less people buying goods or services at DC shops, restaurants, and businesses,” said Daniel Burge, an economic policy expert at the DC Policy Center. Read more: The nation’s…
On December 20, WJLA quoted D.C. Policy Center’s testimony on chronic absenteeism: The DC Policy Center calls chronic absenteeism one of the greatest challenges for DCPS. The center reports the majority of high school students are chronically absent 60% of the time due in part to perceptions of education and relaxed graduation…
On December 19, 2023, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was interviewed by Fox 5: Executive Director Yesim Sayin says less foot traffic could mean a rise in crime in an area where violence is already a concern. “Fewer events at the arena means fewer people coming to these restaurants and that means jobs…
On December 18, 2023, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by WTOP: D.C. has multiple advantages compared to other jurisdictions, she said, including one level of government that’s in charge of things such as schools, police and firefighters. That enables the city to “have a holistic approach to policy because we can…
On December 18th, 2023, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was cited by the Washington City Paper: The economic impact of the teams’ departure is huge. But, even if the deal is approved, they will continue playing at Capital One Arena at least through 2027. “This gives the city time enough to reimagine and reengineer Downtown,”…
On December 15, 2023, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted in the Washington Business Journal. A D.C. Policy Center study released earlier this month estimates estimates D.C. could lose up to $102 million in tax revenue if available space isn’t leased, helping to buoy values. “It will take some time for the chips to…
On December 13th, 2023, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by WAMU: It was Capital One Arena — formerly known as the MCI Center and then Verizon Center — that revitalized the Chinatown neighborhood and contributed to the general improvement of the city’s economy when it opened downtown in 1997, according to…
On December 13, 2023, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by the Washingtonian: Now, with many of downtown’s offices still empty after the pandemic and widespread worries about crime, the departure of the teams could have the opposite effect: “If the teams moved out, we are probably looking at a 30- or…
On December 12, 2023, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by the Washington Business Journal. “I’m shocked,” said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, which studies D.C.’s finances and economy. “This is something we would not be able to undo for a very long time. If the teams moved…
On December 6, 2023, Director of Research and Policy Emilia Calma was quoted in the Washington Informer: As Emilia Calma, director of policy and research at D.C. Policy Center, explained on Monday, Dec. 4, students experience the widest access gaps in high school and during the summer. She said that issues of…
On December 5, 2023, an analysis by Nick Dodds, with comments from Executive Director Yesim Sayin, was cited by WTOP: If offices in downtown D.C. remain empty and current leasing trends continue, the city could lose millions from commercial property tax revenue, according to a new analysis from the D.C. Policy Center. Demand…
On November 30, 2023, Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin’s presentation to the “Every Day Counts!” was cited by the Washington Post: In dozens of interviews conducted by the D.C. Policy Center think tank, students, parents and teachers cited the need for time off for illnesses and mental health days amid rising…
On December 1, 2023, Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin was cited by the Wasington Post: The patterns follow a brief drop-off in turnover during the first two years of the pandemic, when teacher retention across D.C. got as high as 81 percent. Chelsea Coffin, director of the Education Policy Initiative at…
On November 30, 2023, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was cited by DCist. The neighborhoods around the arena are particularly impacted by federal workers being slow to return to offices, says Yesim Sayin, Executive Director of the D.C. Policy Center, due to the presence of federal agencies like the FBI and the U.S. Government…
On November 22, 2023, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted the Washington City Paper: There are more than 73,000 rent-controlled units in D.C., according to a 2020 report by the DC Policy Center, which only looked at buildings with five or more units. “The universe of small, rent-controlled buildings is one that…
On November 15, 2023, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was interviewed by NBC4: “It’s cheaper to build these units in-less resourced parts of town. So, these units come out in probably neighborhoods with the highest poverty rates, and that creates more economic segregation for the city and for the families,” said Sayin. Read…
On November 8, 2023, an article by Julie Rubin was cited by the Washington Informer: In its March 2023 report, D.C. Policy Center criticized OSSE’s collection of post graduation data, saying that more information about who’s completing their postsecondary education and where could help improve college and career outcomes. According to the report,…
On October 30, 2023, an article by Chelsea Coffin and Hannah Mason was cited by WTOP: Since the pandemic, data from the superintendent’s office shows that fewer D.C. public school students have been repeating the ninth grade. Taken at face value, that may sound like a good thing. However, a D.C.-based think…
On October 26, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center report Needs assessment of out-of-school time programs in the District of Columbia was cited in a DC Action policy brief on out of school time programs: Disinvestment linked to structural racism, as shown by data from the DC Policy Center’s 2023 OST needs assessment of OST,…
On October 26th, 2023 Education Policy Initiative report State of D.C. Schools, 2021-2022 was cited in the Washington Post: Before the public health crisis, schools had been growing by an average of about 1,600 students annually, according to the D.C. Policy Center, a local think tank. The city added 2,120 students to its schools…
On October 25, 2023, Director of the Education Policy Initiative Chelsea Coffin was cited in the Washington Informer: During an Every Day Counts! Task Force meeting in September, Chelsea Coffin of the DC Policy Center revealed that school attendance during the 2022-2023 academic year hadn’t reached pre-pandemic levels, even with a 12 percentage point…
Emilia Calma, D.C. Policy Center’s Director of Research and Policy is interviewed by City Cast DC on D.C. residents in BOP custody.
D.C. Policy Center’s Emilia Calma is featured on a City Cast DC episode about D.C.’s parole system and how it could change.
On October 11, 2023, D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director Yesim Sayin was named one of the Power 100 in the D.C. region by the Washington Business Journal. “It’s like Alaska losing oil overnight.” That’s how Yesim Sayin, the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, has described the devastating impact remote and…
On October 10, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was cited in a HUD publication, Evidence Matters: “That’s the big idea,” says DC Policy Center’s Yesim Sayin. “You have one type of use in a building, offices, that is in low demand, and another kind of use, housing, that…
On October 10, 2023, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was cited by The Wash: That’s because regions like these are easier to build upon, said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, a nonprofit research center. “The zoning is more permissive than, say Wards 3 or 6, with…
On October 6, 2023, City Observatory’s weekly newsletter published a commentary on a recent D.C. Policy Center report: The DC Policy Center has an interesting new report charting key population changes in Washington. In contrast to the simple (and largely wrong) “doom loop” narratives, about cities, this study shows that dense, amenity-rich…
On September 30, 2023, our Education Policy Initiative’s s recent publication on school boundaries was cited by the Washington Post. Almost three-quarters of students in D.C. do not attend their neighborhood public school — though in-boundary enrollment is higher in wealthier areas — opting instead to apply through the common lottery to…
On September 29, The D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was cited by the National Review: “For all practical purposes for D.C., the federal government has been shut down since March 9, 2020” the D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin said recently as the prospect of government shutdown loomed even…
On September 29, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director, Yesim Sayin, was cited by the Washington City Paper: “I was shocked by how little Metro can do to solve this problem,” says Yesim Sayin, the head of the D.C. Policy Center and a former official in the CFO’s office, after reading through WMATA’s…
On September 29, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director, Yesim Sayin, was cited by Politico: “For all practical purposes for D.C., the federal government has been shut down since March 9, 2020,” said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, a leading District-focused think tank. Read More: What Shutdown? Downtown…
On September 29, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was cited by the Washington Business Journal: “Commercial property has always been the District’s workhorse … and these are the kinds of buildings that are increasingly under duress,” Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said at the…
On September 6, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s work on food security in D.C. was cited by the Washington Informer The D.C. Policy Center conducted a series of reports on food insecurity issues across the District, citing that over 75% of food deserts amassed in Wards 7 and 8 alone, making up…
On August 30, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s chart of the week, What does the IRS migration data tell us about outmigration from D.C.?, was cited by Axios D.C.: Yes, but: The District has made up its losses thanks to the growing incomes of those staying put. “Between 2020 and 2021, non-migrant resident…
On August 24, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Remote work and the future of D.C. (Part 2): What does remote work mean for the District of Columbia’s tax base?, was cited by the Washington Examiner: A 2022 study by the D.C. Policy Center found that 137 of 733 large office buildings…
On August 7, 2023 the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Predominately black neighborhoods in D.C. bear the brunt of automated traffic enforcement, was cited by Human Rights Watch: As such, implementation of AB 645 risks the same results as those found in Chicago, where between 2015 and 2019, speed cameras ticketed households in…
That lines up with findings the D.C. Policy Center put out this year that remote work is hollowing out D.C.’s urban center as jobs shift to the cheaper Maryland and Virginia suburbs. Workers are holding on to schedules where they work in-office only part of the week, saving them thousands of dollars in commuting and other costs. And economic development wins, such as those promised by Amazon.com Inc. in Arlington, are losing some of their punch as fewer workers and companies move to be near them, said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the center.
Forty-one million residents among all nine cities experience the temperature boost, some up to 10 degrees or more, exposing them to higher risks of heat-related illness and more expensive cooling costs, the study found. Climate Central’s analysis did not include demographic data, Brady said, but other organizations such as the D.C. Policy Center have conducted research showing that lower-income communities face disproportionate impact from the heat island effect, partly because their neighborhoods often lack trees.
On June 26, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Appraising the District’s rentals, was cited by The DC Line: This form of rent stabilization in DC dates to passage of the Rental Housing Act of 1985, which limited rent increases for most apartments built before 1976. But there’s no firm number available on…
On April 26, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s work was cited by Jobs for the Future: Defining the why. CityWorks DC partnered with the D.C. Policy Center to publish their first brief, The Case for Creating a Local Talent Pipeline in the District of Columbia. The brief shifts the narrative away from anecdote and…
Tales of out-of-control schools regularly surface. A report from the D.C. Policy Center tells how the Washington D.C.’s often violent public school system has been boosting graduation rates while measured student academic achievement fell. Horror stories from majority Black school systems in cities like Baltimore tell of illiterates graduating in the top of their class. Nearly everyone knows why Whites flee schools as Black enrollment increases. Ironically, when professional educators finally confront these educational dystopias, everything adheres to the Black victimization narrative — yes, Blacks are routinely disproportionately punished, but this punishment just reflects society’s inherent racism.
On May 24, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, The District of Columbia’s Criminal Justice System under the Revitalization Act, was cited by WSWS: According to the DC Policy Center, at least 60 percent of the facility’s 1,400 male and female detainees “are awaiting trial, or in other words, have not yet…
Of third through eighth graders, 31% of students met English grade level expectations in the 2021-2022 school year, a decline from 37% during the 2018-2019 school year, according to the D.C. Policy Center
A just-released report by the D.C. Policy Center says that while enrollment has rebounded post-pandemic, there has been an uptick in students dealing with mental health issues.
On May 8, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s chart of the week, D.C.’s enrollment is up in school year 2022-23, with uneven growth by grade band, was cited by ABC 7: An analysis by the D.C. Policy Center shows the 2022-2023 school year enrollment climbed nearly 3% at D.C. Public Charter and Pre-k…
On May 6, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s chart of the week, D.C.’s enrollment is up in school year 2022-23, with uneven growth by grade band, was cited by the Washington Post: Most of those students entered prekindergarten, elementary, middle and high school classrooms. But a sizable chunk — more than one-third…
On April 26, 2023, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was mentioned by the Washington Informer: In total, there are 11 members, 10 of which are appointed by the mayor and D.C. Council. Other commissioners include David Catania, former D.C. council member and current managing director of Georgetown Public Affairs, Rashad…
On April 25, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s publication, D.C. students are exposed to more community violence, was cited by The Washington Informer: According to D.C. Policy Center, nearly 80% of District residents lived within half a mile of a homicide — more than likely in places where children live — in 2021. A study conducted…
On April 25, 2023, Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by DCist: The bill echoes a proposal floated by Bowser in her budget support act that would allow the D.C. government to buy land underneath rental or owner-occupied housing, entering into a ground lease with the owner with the intent to secure its long-term…
On April 25, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, State of D.C. Schools 2021-22, was cited by The Lion: A new report reveals that Washington D.C.’s public schools have increased their graduation rates despite marked declines in both reading and math. The D.C. Policy Center report, which compared recent data with pre-pandemic statistics,…
On April 18, 2023, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was mentioned by Washington City Paper: It’s probably no great surprise to see this kind of talk among commission members considering its composition; Bowser got to appoint five members, and she picked Catania, McLean, Williams, attorney James Hudson, and Carolyn Rudd, a past board…
Enforcement-heavy safety strategies, coupled with flat fine systems, also have a particularly devastating impact on lower-income and working-class communities, as well as communities of color. A 2018 DC Policy Center report stated that predominantly Black neighborhoods in the District bore the brunt of automated traffic enforcement.
It is still early — the number of students who end up attending each of D.C.’s schools will fluctuate until at least October — but interest in the lottery this year could signal that enrollment next year will be on par with this year’s figures, said Chelsea Coffin, director of the Education Policy Initiative at the D.C. Policy Center, a think tank.
For every 100 ninth-graders in D.C., 37 students will graduate high school but not enroll in postsecondary school. Only eight out of 100 will graduate college within six years of leaving high school, D.C. Policy Center reported.
D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor says she thinks of D.C.’s rent control laws as more like rent stabilization that prevents price gouging.
On April 6, 2023, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by Axios DC: D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor says she thinks of D.C.’s rent control laws as more like rent stabilization that prevents price gouging. State of play: There was an attempt by the D.C. Council during…
He cited a 2019 study from the D.C. Policy Center that shows the cameras are distributed in neighborhoods that have more people of color and lower incomes. He also said D.C. fines more money per capita than any other city.
During the 2021-2022 school year, Eastern High School had 766 students, the majority of whom were Black. Among all of the District public school feeder patterns, the one leading to Eastern most closely represents the District’s racial demographics, according to a report the D.C. Policy Center released earlier this year.
Recent research by the DC Policy Center shows that there is a specific geography to food access in DC. So-called “food deserts” are neighborhoods that lack ready access to a full-service grocery store.
The Walmart on H Street NW was just blocks from one such residential area. It’s a neighborhood with multiple public and low-income housing buildings with thousands of residents who call the area home.
On April 5, 2023, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by DCist: For Yesim Sayin Taylor, the director of the D.C. Policy Center, some type of government incentives — whether tax breaks, grants, or some other public offerings — will be needed to speed up the process of converting downtown…
The high school graduation rate in Washington, D.C., is climbing. However, student school performance seems to be falling dramatically. While more and more seniors graduate high school, test scores are down and absenteeism is up.
When the money starts drying up, you have to ask the hard questions. Do I want housing? Do I want [rental assistance]? Do I want money for schools? I mean, they’re competing, and that’s the big change,” says Yesim Sayin Taylor, executive director of local think tank D.C. Policy Center. “This is a city that has been planning for growth since 2005 or so. And in the pandemic years we didn’t have to think about it because money rained from the skies.”
The American Counseling Association estimates that 40% of Black male teenagers suffer from persistent sadness and feelings of hopelessness, with nearly one out of four seriously considering suicide. On the education front, the D.C. Policy Center found two years ago that 14 percent of high school graduates who enter college could expect to obtain their degree within six years.
Washington schools reported a sharp decline in school attendance for the 2021-22 school year, with nearly half of students missing at least 10% of the entire school year, according to the D.C. Policy Center. Roughly 42% of students were labeled as “truant.”
On March 27, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, State of D.C. Schools 2021-22, was cited by KQED: A troubling post-pandemic pattern is emerging across the nation’s schools: Test scores and attendance are down, yet more students are earning high school diplomas. A new report from Washington, D.C., suggests bleak futures for…
But amid the applause and happy tears, officials acknowledged more must be done — to not only send more children to college but also make sure they graduate. A recent report from the D.C. Policy Center, a local think tank, found that for every 100 ninth-graders in D.C., just eight will graduate college within six years of leaving high school.
The numbers are stark in a March 2023 report by the D.C. Policy Center, a nonpartisan research organization. Almost half the students in the district – 48 percent – were absent for 10 percent or more of the 2021-22 school year. Seven years of academic progress were erased in math: only 19 percent of third through eighth graders met grade-level expectations in the subject in 2021-22, down from 31 percent before the pandemic.
The report said that students with disabilities experienced high levels of absenteeism. They also had the lowest learning outcomes during the 2021-2022 school year, as seen in their scores on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career, also known as PARCC. Researchers attributed that, in part, to staffing vacancies that prevented students from receiving speech and language services and, in some cases, relegated them to a general education classroom without support.
The report found that current attendance patterns in most cases do not reflect the city’s overall racial diversity, and that some schools are significantly overcrowded while others have trouble filling their seats. Still, the possible changes to boundaries are only likely to impact a relatively small number of schools and kids.
On March 15, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, State of D.C. Schools 21-22, was cited by Axios: D.C. public school students still haven’t fully recovered from the pandemic despite returning to the classroom. Driving the news: A report out today from the D.C. Policy Center says students are still struggling with the residual impacts of…
On March 15, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, State of D.C. Schools 21-22, was cited by the Washington Post: In the year that D.C. schools fully reopened after being forced to shutter campuses because of the pandemic, math and reading proficiency plummeted, more high school students reported feeling sad or hopeless, and…
On March 15, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, State of D.C. Schools 2021-22, was cited by The DC Line: A report out today delves into the many changes for DC schools since the start of the pandemic. Meanwhile, nine members of the DC Council are introducing a bill that seeks to…
On February 21, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, The role of school boundaries in the District of Columbia, was cited by The Washington Informer: In January, the D.C. Policy Center released a report showing that most District students — nearly three out of four — opt to leave their neighborhood to attend either…
“Within the Jackson-Reed feeder pattern, families tend to have the resources to either choose where they live and therefore choose their by-right school or choose to attend a private school,” said Chelsea Coffin, the Director of the Education Policy Initiative at DC Policy Center and one of the report’s authors.
It’s hit the economy of the capital hard — there are some 280,000 federal workers in the region, about 141,000 in Washington itself. The city’s tax revenue is down, stores are closed, and subway ridership is low. “It’s like a three-year hurricane in the city,” says Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank.
“People kind of want to live in places that give them the opportunity at reasonable prices,” says Yesim Sayim, who runs a local think-tank called the D.C. Policy Center. “They don’t particularly care about the flag that adorns the sky.” Washington always worked well for people, a place that may not have offered the startup-economy upsides of Manhattan or Silicon Valley, but also didn’t come with the risks of an employer going out of business. “But now, if you have a chair and a computer, the world is your oyster. And the presence of a job in D.C. is not necessarily a reason for someone to move to D.C.”
The District of Columbia’s economy is also largely dependent on commuters, given that 70% of its workers lived outside the city before the pandemic, according to a May report from the D.C. Policy Center.
Out-migration from the District to the suburbs led to a decrease of 23,000 residents in 2021, according to D.C. Policy Center, a record high in the last two decades, so it’s not surprising that more people are working from spaces outside the city.
On January 27, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Remote work and the future of D.C. (Part 2), was cited by the Washington Post: Even before the pandemic, downtown Washington had an oversupply of offices that was aggravated by the emergence of telework and competition from emerging neighborhoods such as the Wharf. That dynamic…
“The more successful the conversions are, the less the conversation is about whether the floor plates are right or wrong, because if the value is in residential, then you may as well just tear down and rebuild,” DC Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin said.
Conventional wisdom says that Washington is recession resilient thanks to Uncle Sam. Federal spending and jobs helped us stave off the worst during the Great Recession. But relying on the federal government isn’t what it used to be, local economists who are concerned about a 2023 slowdown tell Axios. For one, federal workers staying remote means the District is “no longer as protected” from a recession as it was in the past, says Yesim Taylor, head of the D.C. Policy Center.
“Washington, D.C., has always been a recession-proof place before the pandemic because we have the federal government here that is countercyclical … It operates in an expanded capacity during bad times,” said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center. “I don’t believe the federal government will be the same type of floating device in the future we had before. Federal spending may still expand, but federal spending accrues everywhere.”
On January 3, 2023, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by NBC 4: Yesim Sayin, executive director of the nonprofit think tank D.C. Policy Center, told the I-Team it’s too soon to say what success looks like for the fare crackdown campaign. She noted the estimated money lost to…
Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center and one of the only witnesses to speak against the Green New Deal For Housing during its 11-hour public hearing on Nov. 22, said she doesn’t believe there are enough market-rate renters willing to pay the rent needed to cross-subsidize the social housing developments’ cheapest units.
Public school enrollment in our region has dipped since 2019, especially in suburban school districts.The declines might be caused by decreased demand for public schools during the pandemic and lower birth rates, per the D.C. Policy Center.
“Our main funding model is that money follows students,” Sayin said. If a school loses students — but not enough in a single grade to eliminate a classroom teacher, for example — DCPS would have to figure out how to provide that school with the lost per-pupil funding.
Of 733 large buildings in D.C., about one in five are more than 25% empty and could rise to one in three if leasing activity does not increase, according to analysis of tax data from D.C. Policy Center, further stressing the city’s tax base.
It’s called high-impact tutoring — at least 90 minutes of tutoring per week, divided across a few sessions before, during or after the school day, including immediate tutor feedback. Many sessions include three or fewer students, according to a D.C. Policy Center report.
Between the lines: Before the pandemic, 28% of D.C. households lacked access to broadband internet or a home computer, according to the D.C. Policy Center. This disparity was further highlighted by the rise in remote work and virtual learning during the pandemic.
There are 733 large office buildings in the office-heavy parts of the District today, of which 228 are more than 25% vacant or are likely to become vacant in the next two years as tenants leave with no one to replace them, according to a data analysis by the D.C. Policy Center. Those buildings, in turn, could trade for bargain prices and potentially depress the values of similar properties.
At the same time, leaders of America’s biggest cities are grasping the fact that remote and hybrid work are here to stay. A D.C. Policy Center report in May summed up the city’s challenge: “Our best estimate is that of the 401,481 workers who commuted to D.C. from elsewhere prior to the pandemic, 155,550 can do their jobs from home.” There simply won’t be as much need for office space going forward. That’s a massive problem for downtown D.C.‚ which the mayor’s office says consists of more than 90 percent commercial space and only 8 percent residential.
On November 16, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Declining births and lower demand: Charting the future of public school enrollment in D.C., was cited by the Washington Informer: The DC Policy Center released a study earlier this year that highlighted declining pre-school and elementary school enrollment in the pre-pandemic years. This had especially…
The figure represents an increase of almost 3 percent from last school year, or about 2,600 more students, according to preliminary data from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE). Before the pandemic, public school enrollment had been growing by an average of about 1,600 students every school year since the 2007-2008 academic year, according to the D.C. Policy Center, a local research group. That progress stalled during the public health crisis.
A July report by the D.C. Policy Center predicted enrollment in D.C.’s public schools could drop by 6,000 students — the equivalent of 16 average-sized schools — over the next five years, driven by falling birth rates and lower demand for living in the District due to the pandemic. “An enrollment decline of this magnitude would have significant implications for D.C.’s public schools.”
On November 7, 2022, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin was quoted by Axios: Yes, but: There are a few factors besides the price drop that could be contributing to weekend ridership’s rebound. Historically, Metro has largely been used by commuters during the week — fewer weekend riders means a smaller pool…
On October 4, 2022, D.C. Policy Center analysis on Metro’s Kids Ride Free program was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Take the Kids Ride Free program, for which every District student from age 5–21 is eligible. Distribution of SmarTrip cards for Kids Ride Free is poor, estimated at 38% last year by DC…
On October 3, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s analysis, How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970, was cited by WAMU: Just 34% of Black residents own their home, a 12 point drop from the 46% Black homeownership rate in 2005, according to a report from various housing experts convened by…
The location at 2224 Town Center Drive SE is the first new grocery store in Ward 7 in over a decade. Local leaders hope the new store will address gaps in access to food for residents in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. 80 percent of D.C.’s food deserts were in Ward 7 and Ward 8 in 2017, according to D.C. Policy Center.
Just 34% of Black residents own their home, a 12 point drop from the 46% Black homeownership rate in 2005, according to a report from various housing experts convened by the mayor. Meanwhile, homeownership has increased for white residents over that same time period, hovering around 49%. D.C. has also seen a decline in Black residents over that time, falling to 49.2 percent by 2011 according to the D.C. Policy Center.
Seventy-six percent of establishments in D.C. are small businesses with less than 500, and they account for 49% of its employment and 43% of its annual payroll. Even businesses under 50 employees count for one in five jobs in the District. So, it’s all the more important to find ways to keep them here, especially as remote work has proven its usefulness and “can’t be legislated away,” said Yesim Sayin, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center.
D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor tells Axios that the Washington region’s high concentration of workers who are able to do their jobs remotely has continued to make it even harder for Metro to rebound from pandemic losses.
Sellars said this entity will be focused just on D.C., which has had far less success than both Maryland and Virginia in attracting companies and generating jobs thus far. Of 120 large headquarters that have moved to Greater Washington this century, just 16 have come to the District itself, according to research from D.C. Policy Center, and the city is losing 2.4 jobs for every job it adds.
While a 2018 study found that giving at-risk students a higher priority would improve outcomes for just 8.2% of at-risk participants, a 2020 study by DC Policy Center was much more promising. They looked specifically at charter schools with long waitlists that had just 15% of at-risk students enrolled (city-wide, 45% of students are at-risk). At these schools, given the preference siblings get in the lottery, it was hard for at-risk students to snag a coveted spot.
Research by the DC Policy Center found that in 2021 almost 80% of people lived within half a mile of a homicide (which are on the rise in DC) occurring that year. Black residents, however, are 19 percentage points more likely than their white peers to live within that radius.
D.C.’s nearly 40-year-old rent control law caps annual rent increases at the rate of inflation plus 2% at larger apartment buildings constructed before 1976. Roughly one third of rental units in D.C. fall under rent control, but that number has decreased over time, according to the D.C. Policy Center.
According to the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, early childhood educators, who are predominantly Black and brown, earn a median annual income of approximately $31,950 — barely above minimum wage and not on par with public school teachers. The median teacher pay in D.C. is just over $81,000, says the D.C. Policy Center.
At-risk kids are also less likely to get into their lottery choices. A major reason is that the lottery gives preference to siblings, according to research by the D.C. Policy Center, which tends to maintain school demographics rather than disrupt them.
A report in June by the D.C. Policy Center noted that just being in proximity to repeated criminal acts can have a deleterious effect on mental and physical health. The study found that 80 percent of District residents lived within a half-mile of a homicide in 2021. However, in wealthy and predominantly White Ward 3, there were only two homicides, and no one lived within a half-mile of either killing.
On August 3, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s Chart of the week, Ongoing substitute teacher shortages affect schools’ ability to function, was cited by the Washington Informer: D.C. Public Schools may face a huge shortage of substitute teachers in the upcoming academic year, which could have an impact on classrooms and school…
Meanwhile, with three weeks to go until school starts back up, DC Public Schools is facing a serious shortage of substitute teachers. The number of subs has dropped by 50 percent in the past two years, according to a new D.C. Policy Center report. A lot teachers say they’re quitting because of low pay, lack of benefits, and COVID concerns.
According to a recent analysis from local research group D.C. Policy Center, the number of substitutes on the DCPS payroll has gone down from 987 at the start of 2020 to 501 in the first quarter of 2022. It’s not known exactly how many substitutes there are going into the upcoming school year, as D.C.’s public employee salary database has yet to update with the most recent quarter’s data.
On July 30, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Examining office to residential conversions in the District, was cited by The American Conservative: An analysis by the D.C. Policy Center found that while a Class C office building could increase in value if converted to residential, converting it to Class A would yield…
On July 25, 2022, a map from the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C.’s heat islands, was cited by City Cast DC: The last few days have been some of the most wretchedly hot ones I’ve seen in D.C. Apparently, D.C. is an urban heat island (a.k.a it’s hotter than neighboring counties, lucky us). However,…
A report by the DC Policy Center shows enrollment growth stalled in D.C. schools during the pandemic and if the trend continues, an enrollment that currently stands at 87,000 could decline to 81,000 by 2026.
Enrollment in D.C.’s traditional public and charter schools is expected to drop over the next five years, a disappointing turn for a city that had celebrated more than a decade of growth in its public schools. The current enrollment stagnation and anticipated decrease in the coming years — according to a study released Wednesday by the local research group D.C. Policy Center — was propelled by declining birthrates and adults leaving the city or pulling their children out of public schools during the pandemic.
School enrollment numbers in D.C. are projected to decline, the latest shift after years of growth in its public and charter schools.
Even if employees do come back a few days a week they’ll be spending less. If the estimated 155,000 who commute into D.C. from nearby came in just days a week, D.C. would lose out on $62.9 million a year in sales tax revenue, according to the analysis. Yesim Sayin, its executive director, said that puts more importance on a strategy that proves a value of in-person work.
On July 7, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Food access in D.C is deeply connected to poverty and transportation, was cited by the Washington Post: Wards 7 and 8 lost four of their seven full-service grocery stores between 2010 and 2020, while the city’s other six wards gained 37 grocery stores…
Data showing how many D.C. kids are impacted by shootings reflects just how important that support is.The DC Policy Centermapped it out. “On average, when a homicide happened in DC [in 2021], there were about 2,800 kids that were nearby,” executive director of the center, Yesim Sayin said. Sayin said in areas that see more violent crime, that number can get up into the hundreds of thousands.
The Anacostia River branches off the Potomac just two miles due south of the U.S. Capitol building near the Nationals baseball stadium, running through Washington, D.C. past the National Arboretum, and into Maryland. Across the 11th Street bridge is a low-income and predominantly-Black neighborhood (per Statistical Atlas) which, on a map published by the D.C. Policy Center, is lit up with blue dots, each marking a bodega or corner store. The area contains only two full-service grocers — which, as the map shows, are abundant and accessible everywhere north and west of the river.
On June 20, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Charts of the week: A pandemic-induced exodus has broken the District’s population boom, was cited by the Washington Examiner: The availability of remote work, the persistence of pandemic-related restrictions, and the rise of crime and inflation have all contributed to a stream of…
“Bowser has directed several new initiatives to address food insecurity in Wards 7 and 8, where the D.C. Policy Center estimates 82% of the city’s food deserts lie.”
High-income earners eventually started returning to the city, and so did the jobs, according to a DC Policy Center study. Growth in DC, according to the DC Policy Center, was driven by young people between the ages of 25-35 in the early 2000s. Areas like Fairfax, Montgomery, and Prince George’s also experienced huge spikes in population growth. And TOD sprouted up in places throughout the District as more and more people wanted to be able to walk to their destinations.
Medici Road has been working for over a year to resurrect what is now an overgrown lot on a main neighborhood thoroughfare within the Deanwood policy focus area, which emphasizes infill development, especially with neighborhood-serving retail. Advisory Neighborhood Council 7C supported the project, noting the corridor has much under-used land, and the grocery store has been a popular demand in an area the D.C. Policy Center designates as a food desert. The grocery store and coffee shop users haven’t been made public, Jackson said.
D.C.’s high school graduation rate was on the decline for years, D.C. Policy Center’s Education Policy Initiative director Chelsea Coffin tells Axios. But it increased during the pandemic as some graduation requirements were relaxed or waived. What to watch: Coffin says the decrease in D.C. births will impact public school enrollment in the future, especially for younger students.
D.C.’s population fell by about 3%, representing a loss of more than 20,000 residents, in 2021, the D.C. Policy Center reported on March 25, citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
On April 20, 2022, The D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. Voices: D.C. schools ramped up mental health resources during the pandemic. How well do these services address student needs?, was cited by The D.C. Line: The D.C. Policy Center has a new analysis of the extra mental health resources provided by DC schools during…
On April 15, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Do residential properties in D.C.’s historic districts outperform the rest of the city in value appreciation?, was cited by 730DC: Appreciating historyContrary to what you might expect, homes in DC’s historic districts have actually risen less in value. Read more: Not easy being Orange…
On April 14, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Do residential properties in D.C.’s historic districts outperform the rest of the city in value appreciation?, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Residential properties in DC’s historic areas have underperformed in value appreciation compared to homes in the rest of the city, despite the properties…
The D.C. Policy Center, a local research group, crunched the numbers and determined that expanding the eligibility for at-risk funds could cost the city anywhere between $20 and $33 million each year. Analysts figured that many children who would fall under these new categories already qualify for at-risk funding because their families qualify for food stamps.
The District is no longer attracting as many of the young and well-educated adults who have fueled its recent population growth, census data shows. The migration of young people over the past two decades led to an increase in public school enrollment, new development, and more tax revenue for the District. But the number of people aged 25 to 34 moving into the city has slowed in the past four years, further declining during the pandemic, local think tank D.C. Policy Center found.
On March 24, 2022, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Chart of the week: Mayor Bowser’s FY 2023 proposed budget, was cited by The DC Line: If folks want to understand what irresponsible financial planning and management look like, they need only review the recent Chart of the Week published by the D.C. Policy…
The majority of DC residents rent their homes, and in 2019, when the D.C. Policy Center was collecting data for its 2020 report on rental housing in the District, 60 percent of rental units were in apartment buildings. That’s 124,641 apartment units, in 3,121 buildings. And we’d like to know more about what it’s like to live in them.
Adults ages 25-34 left DC in record numbers during the pandemic, new data shows. This is worrisome not just because you have to make new friends now*, but because maintaining a net inflow of young adult workers can be crucial to a city’s ability to attract new business and maintain what the D.C. Policy Center calls “strong fiscal health.”
Overall, the D.C. Policy Center has found that domestic in-migration into the nation’s capital in particular had turned negative in 2019, remaining that way through the pandemic. For every resident who moved into D.C. from the nearby suburbs in recent years, two moved out, and household formation markedly slowed, according to the center.
Educated young adults have left DC at historic levels during the pandemic and are no longer moving to the District at the rate of years past. DC also lost workers in key industries, particularly those with more remote-eligible jobs.
“A walk down Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE from Good Hope Road toward Morris Road reveals cranes and a string of rising projects, adding to what has long been the area’s quirkiest landmark, an oversized chair…But even amid those plans, not nearly enough has changed. The area median income in Anacostia’s northwest portion is $35,750, sliding down to $17,159 in its eastern sections. It’s still designated a food desert, according to the D.C. Policy Center. More than half of area residents have no access to a car.”
D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor tells Axios that because the pandemic pushed workers away from downtown and out of D.C., new businesses are more important now than ever.
Approximately 82% of the city’s food deserts — areas where residents have low rates of car access, a high poverty rate and are located more than half a mile from a grocery store or supermarket—occur in Wards 7 and 8, and that trend has persisted for decades, according to research by the D.C. Policy Center.
Yesim Sayin Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said the city should consider how it wants TOPA to influence its affordable housing priorities. She said a shortened timeline or even waiver of the TOPA process for housing operators with a commitment to affordability should be on the table as the city moves out of the pandemic.
Yet, according to the Brookings Metro Monitor 2021 report, Greater Washington ranks 51st among 53 large metro areas for racial inclusion, or the gap between the white population and people of color on key poverty indicators. In addition, the DC Policy Center found that even when District-born and raised youth find jobs, they are likely to be in low-paying occupations with little opportunity for economic mobility.
Some civil rights advocates oppose automated enforcement on the grounds that even race-blind cameras are used to scale up America’s traditions of revenue-driven and racist policing. In D.C., for example, researchers found that drivers in segregated Black neighborhoods received 17 times as many camera tickets per capita as their counterparts in white neighborhoods. Black Washingtonians are indeed more likely to live near high-speed arterials where drivers (including white suburbanites) go very fast, but the disparity suggests the cameras aren’t improving driver safety so much as raising money.
A 2020 study conducted by the D.C. Policy Center found that prioritizing at-risk students had the potential to improve their chance “to match at a school they have ranked and to increase socioeconomic diversity, especially at a subset of schools that serve low percentages of students who are at-risk.” The study said sibling preference preserved schools’ preexisting demographics by making it harder for students without siblings at a school to get in.
Increasingly, it looks like office owners downtown need to start considering a range of possibilities for their buildings, according to the D.C. Policy Center. Office vacancies were already rising before the pandemic, says a recent report from the think tank, and neighborhoods with a combination of commercial and residential space proved to be more resilient during the crisis.
An example from the D.C. Policy Center is informative: The owner of a single-family home can increase the value of the property by replacing the single-family home with a duplex or triplex while still paying the same in taxes under a system of land value taxation, reducing the average tax burden per unit. In contrast, under the standard property tax regime, this increased densification would result in a higher property tax burden due to the increased value of the property, and the landowner may decide not to undertake this improvement.
Mixed use neighborhoods with a heavy office presence have proved more resilient to the effects of the pandemic than office-heavy downtown areas, which have been seeing more vacancies. (Bailey McConnell / DC Policy Center)
Most students who left their schools at the end of last year did not transfer to another campus within the city but moved out of the District entirely, according to city officials. It is hard to pinpoint exactly how many of those departures are because of the pandemic. Chelsea Coffin, who directs education research at the D.C. Policy Center, said birth rates in the District have declined since 2016, a possible indicator that fewer students can be expected to enroll in school.
A new report from the D.C. Policy Center asks whether mixed-use projects represent downtown’s future. Senior research analyst Bailey McConnell notes that areas replete with mixed-use development have proved more resilient to the economic impact of the pandemic.
In 1867, the federal government purchased a 375-acre site in Anacostia for the settlement of African Americans after the Civil War. In 1941, the government seized a 34-acre section of the community’s land to build Barry Farm Dwellings, a public housing development for African Americans, per a report from the D.C. Policy Center.
Right now, many Black D.C. residents cannot afford to live within walking or biking distance of their workplace. Data from the D.C. Policy Center found that those who biked to work earned an average of $60,000 a year, while workers who took the bus earned an average of $32,000, the 2017 data found.
On November 10, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. high school alumni reflections on their early career outcomes, was cited by The DC Line: DC Council hears testimony on effectiveness of pilot program on school security [WTOP] ‘Old news? 214-unit development proposed for former Fox 5 site on Wisconsin Avenue’ [UrbanTurf]…
Earlier this year, the D.C. Policy Center collected data showing that isolation and increased economic hardship during the pandemic further primed young people for socioemotional challenges. In anticipation of months of unresolved trauma spilling into the classroom, Yaa-Anna participated in workshops about trauma-informed instruction.
“For most of its history, the District suffered from underinvestment that can, at least in part, be attributed to the lack of stable and proper fiscal supports from the federal government in several fields including education and infrastructure,” researchers with the D.C. Policy Center, which prepared the report alongside Statehood Research, wrote.
Incidents like these continue to occur across DC and are prevalent in every ward. A recent study by the DC Policy Center documented these incidents across the city. It also points out that many of these incidents have not been tracked. Upwards of 30% of incidents involving a pedestrian outside a vehicle that resulted in a 911 call were not actually logged by the Metropolitan Police Department.
The residents located in those areas have limited access to nutritious food, which leads to higher reliance on junk food and fast food, experts say. Additionally, food deserts are usually in low-income areas and communities of color, according to a Department of Agriculture study. Those neighborhoods also often report higher rates of obesity and diabetes, according to a study done by the D.C. Policy Center.
Researchers at the D.C. Policy Center and D.C. Office of Planning have both argued in recent studies that the dearth of conversions often stems from a simple math problem: Even with declining vacancy rates, the shift to residential still may not generate high enough rents to justify the expense of making the switch. Owners of older, class B and C buildings are therefore much more likely to explore the prospect, and even then, owners in the suburbs have more incentive to convert than those in downtown D.C.
“Over the past couple of years City leadership has propelled the District to be ranked as the #11 startup ecosystem in the world. Moreover, according to the DC Policy Center annual data through Q4 2020 shows there was a 5 percent increase in total private establishments in the District between 2019 and 2020. Now is the time to ensure that the growth of businesses in DC is equitable for all,” said Melissa Bradley
“As of June 2021, nearly half the small businesses that operated in January of 2020 were closed, and revenue was down by about 57%,” according to a D.C. Policy Center report commissioned by the D.C. Chamber of Commerce. Those closures were concentrated in “consumer-facing industries” such as leisure and hospitality, where employment remained 35% below February 2020 levels. In contrast, the report found, employment in office-based jobs was only 3% below February 2020 levels.
“Parents who move their children from D.C. public schools to surrounding jurisdictions cite school quality and housing affordability as major contributing factors to leaving — but what makes a quality school varies widely by household, a new report out today by the D.C. Policy Center found.
On October 13, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Exit & voice: Perceptions of the District’s public schools among stayers and Leavers, was cited by Axios D.C.: Parents who move their children from D.C. public schools to surrounding jurisdictions cite school quality and housing affordability as major contributing factors to leaving —…
Parents who move their children from D.C. public schools to surrounding jurisdictions cite school quality and housing affordability as major contributing factors to leaving — but what makes a quality school varies widely by household, a new report out today by the D.C. Policy Center found.
On October 9, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by Bisnow: D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayim Taylor said the data shows the vast majority of eviction cases have involved nonpayment of rent. “Landlords are not happy with the extension of eviction to all causes, they…
On October 8, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Examining office to residential conversions in the District, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: A housing shortage and recent pandemic-driven changes in work patterns mean the District seems to have too much office space, and too little residential. But office to home conversions…
On October 8, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Examining office to residential conversions in the District, was cited by the Washington Post: The D.C. Policy Center came out with its own study Thursday focused on the potential of turning office buildings downtown into residential space. It painted those conversions as an answer to…
On October 7, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Observed disparities between 911 calls and crash reports, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: A study by the DC Policy Center found that nearly a third of crashes involving pedestrians, cyclists, and scooter riders go unlogged in DC crash data. Police say they…
On October 7, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Observed disparities between 911 calls and crash reports, was cited by Axios DC: A third of crashes during a six-week period where a driver hit a cyclist or a pedestrian was not publicly reported by police, a new report by the D.C. Policy Center found….
On October 7, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Observed disparities between 911 calls and crash reports, was cited by The DC Line: A new analysis out today from the D.C. Policy Center finds that Metropolitan Police Department’s crash data is incomplete but nonetheless provides the basis for safety decisions by the District Department of Transportation. “While…
On October 6, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Pushing through complacency to fight health disparities in D.C.’s African American communities, was cited by StreetSense: Opening the medical center east of the Anacostia River was done strategically, according to Bread for the City’s press release. Access to quality healthcare has been a…
On October 6, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Observed disparities between 911 calls and crash reports, was cited by WTOP: You wouldn’t necessarily expect every single car accident to get a police report after the fact, even if an ambulance is sent out to respond to the scene as a precaution….
On September 27, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Births and international in-migration maintain the District’s population 15-year population growth, was cited by the Wall Street Journal: People are pushing farther out. Stafford and Loudoun counties in Virginia and Frederick County in Maryland saw the strongest area population growth rates, almost 2%, as well…
On September 18, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin was cited by WTOP: During a public hearing in July 2020, before the law was passed, Chelsea Coffin, the director of the Education Initiative of D.C. Policy Center, testified before the city council on the report the center published on…
On September 17, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, At-risk priority in D.C.’s common lottery: Potential implications for access and diversity, was cited by DCist: In an analysis published last year, the D.C. Policy Center determined that a new at-risk preference would likely accomplish those goals. “Implementing a priority for at-risk applicants…
On September 10, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How big of a deal is Amazon HQ2 for the DC Metro Region?, was cited by DCist: Economist Yesim Sayin Taylor with the D.C. Policy Center wrote in a 2018 paper that Amazon would likely be “an unimpressive flare in the region’s chronic housing crisis,”…
On September 8, 2021, D.C. Policy Center’s article, Challenges outside of school for D.C.’s students and families during the pandemic, was cited by the Washington Informer: A report published by the D.C. Policy Center in March found that District children who stayed home during the pandemic experienced social isolation, anxiety and depression. As adults…
On August 25, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The long view for the District’s budget: What is awaiting the District in Fiscal Year 2022 and beyond, was quoted by Citizens Against Government Waste: Both policy analysts on the right and left agree that the city has enough money and will continue…
On August 19, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Discriminatory housing practices in the District: A brief history by Kathryn Zickuhr, was cited by Washington City Paper: “[G]overnment regulations and recommendations at every level of government sought to keep Black and white residents separated, subsidizing construction, loans, and housing for white residents…
On August 14, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970, was cited by the Washington Post: White people, who didn’t face labor market discrimination or the legacy of slavery, got there first. But plenty of Black people wanted houses with yards and…
On August 13, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, What is happening to the District’s personal income tax base?, was cited by Law360: The D.C. Policy Center is among the most influential think tanks in the nation’s capital. The center conducts excellent research and analysis on a wide variety of public policy…
On August 13, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The rise and demise of racially restrictive covenants in Bloomingdale, was cited by WUSA9: Much of what shaped these Black neighborhoods was the result of racially restrictive covenants throughout the mid-20th century that banned Black people from buying property in White neighborhoods forcing…
On August 6, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Food access in D.C is deeply connected to poverty and transportation, was cited by the Washington Business Journal: The grocery store is a necessity for her neighbors, too. The D.C. Policy Center, a research group launched years ago by the Federal City Council,…
On June 4, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Dr. Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by The Washington Post: Some analysts said statehood could bring other financial opportunities as well. If the District had voting representation in Congress, lawmakers could lobby more effectively for federal grant funding available to all states, said…
On June 1, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center was mentioned by Greater Greater Washington: There’s no cost estimate yet for the program, but White expects cost estimates to be “very compelling.” He said they are working with the DC Policy Center to estimate how much funding the program would need and how…
On May 21, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Dr. Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Triad Business Journal: But that can cause issues, according to Yesim Taylor, head of the D.C. Policy Center, who noted that these maps are based off census tracts. Read more: He was denied an SBA…
On May 5, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by WUSA9: The D.C. Policy Center, a think-tank nonprofit, said hundreds of people like Bryan decided to open small, home-based businesses during the pandemic. In its 2020 report, it found that as hundreds of businesses were being wiped…
On May 3, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited by DCist: D.C. went by several names in the second half of the 20th century: Chocolate City for example, referred to the fact that D.C. was the country’s first majority Black city. While more white residents now call the…
On April 29, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Tax practices that amplify racial inequities: Property tax treatment of owner-occupied housing, was cited by StreetSense: A 2018 report by the D.C. Policy Center stated that provisions such as the homestead deduction and property tax cap, which give large tax breaks to homeowners in gentrified…
On April 29, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The District’s population grows for the 14th year in a row, but at a weaker rate, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: The city’s population has grown over the last two decades, and is likely to continue to do so. Even if COVID…
On April 26, 2021, D.C. Policy Center researcher Sunaina Kathpalia was quoted by the Washington Post: Sunaina Kathpalia, a demographics researcher at the D.C. Policy Center, said that the slowed population growth in the latter half of the decade is “not a sign of some kind of doom.” “It is part of…
On April 22, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Where it’s easiest to live car-free in D.C., was cited by Greater Greater Washington: The goals of safety and equity in transportation are aligned. Private vehicles are the most deadly form of transportation. The DC Policy Center has shown that areas where car-free living is…
On April 19, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Taking Stock of the District’s Housing Stock, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Multifamily affordable housing units are more difficult to find, as only 31% of the available housing units in the District were “potentially” affordable to families of four, according to a 2018 report…
On April 9, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Food access in D.C is deeply connected to poverty and transportation, was cited by Slate: Researchers define a food desert in D.C. as an area where there is no full-service grocery store within a half-mile and where 40 percent of the households don’t have a…
On March 9, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Wilkes Scholar Yanesia Norris was quoted and cited by WAMU: Students who live in Ward 7 and 8, majority-Black parts of the city with large concentrations of low-income families and high numbers of frontline workers, are at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus, according to an…
On March 2, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Dr. Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by DCist: Yesim Sayin Taylor, the director of the D.C. Policy Center, another local think tank, says she understands the desire to identify new sources of revenue for social programs, calling the issues raised by Allen “terribly…
On February 26, 2021, D.C Policy Center Executive Director Dr. Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: The benefits of homeownership reverberate well past a domicile’s four walls. It doesn’t just produce wealth for current owners — it snowballs over time for future generations. It creates a pipeline for…
On February 25, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Dr. Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the New York Times: Even if the disease strikes the overall population somewhat evenly, the risks of death are far less uniform, said Yesim Sayin Taylor, the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, a research…
On February 24, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, A decade of demographic change in D.C.: Which neighborhoods have changed the most?, was cited by StreetSense: Public worries about the plan’s focus and intentions stem from the negative effects of gentrification and Black and brown displacement in the city, particularly in the…
On February 17, 2021, Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor’s interview with Washingtonian was cited by the DC Line: ► DC BUDGET – ‘DC has a surprise $552 million budget surplus despite Covid. What gives?’ Washingtonian’s Luke Mullins: “Though the covid pandemic has hammered the Washington region’s economy, the DC government finished its 2020 fiscal year…
On February 18, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Yesim Taylor, head of the D.C. Policy Center and before that a longtime staffer in the CFO’s office, believes Mendelson’s assessment is accurate, if for no other reason than the job is an…
On February 16, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2020 State of Business: Pivoting from Pandemic to Recovery was cited by DCist: The D.C. Policy Center, which is run by Yesim Taylor, a former staffer in the CFO’s office, summarized the risk to D.C. as follows in its 2020 State of Business Report:…
On February 16, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by Washingtonian: Though the covid pandemic has hammered the Washington region’s economy, the DC government finished its 2020 fiscal year with a surplus of more than half a billion dollars. How is that possible? What does it say about about…
On February 4, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Yesim Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center and a former staffer in the CFO’s office, observed that the typical formula for appraisers involves examining a building’s capitalization rate: essentially, the ratio…
On February 4, 2021, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Yesim Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center and a former staffer in the CFO’s office, observed that the typical formula for appraisers involves examining a building’s capitalization rate: essentially, the ratio…
On January 19, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Single-family zoning and neighborhood characteristics in the District of Columbia, was cited by Vox: Limited supply means greater competition for the housing that is available, and that competition benefits higher- and middle-income people. And local zoning regulations, which make it more difficult for…
On January 19, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2020 State of Business Report: Pivoting from Pandemic to Recovery, was cited by NBC: The city has been hammered by political unrest over the last year as the pandemic closed stores and prohibited indoor dining, gutting some businesses. More than one-quarter of small…
On January 9, 2021, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited by The Atlantic: Though the rapidly gentrifying District is now 46 percent Black and 46 percent white, many still see it as “Chocolate City.” Scaling back democratic protections for Black people has been a hallmark of this administration and…
On December 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s policy brief, How would the “Reclaim Rent Control” proposals change the District’s rental housing landscape?, was cited by DCist: In 2011, a study by the Urban Institute found that 79,145 units across 4,818 properties in D.C. were “potentially subject to rent control.” At a recent…
On December 18, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The impact of occupational licensing requirements in D.C., was cited by DCist: Earlier this year, the District’s protections for criminal-record-holding citizens seeking occupational licenses received a C- grade in a nationwide report on licensing barriers from the Institute for Justice. According to a 2019 D.C. Policy Center…
On December 14, 2020, D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by Washington Business Journal: Yesim Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said the trend in new business applications is the same nationwide, with a dramatic increase in the third quarter. But the D.C., Virginia and Maryland…
On December 2, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How COVID-19 is affecting small businesses in D.C., was referenced in a letter-to-the-editor in the Washington Times: It is small business owners, especially, that do not have the resources or means to perpetually stay open in the midst of lockdowns. In D.C., this…
On December 1, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, New D.C. education data show how school choice plays out across wards, was cited by Washington City Paper: The cuts would come when there is a vaccine. (Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed, tells CNN it’s possible we reach herd immunity…
On December 1, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by DCist: And while the pain will be felt across the Washington region, Yesim Sayin Taylor of the D.C. Policy Center says the District will feel it particularly acutely. D.C. has already seen its revenue depleted by hundreds…
On November 23, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s policy brief, How would the “Reclaim Rent Control” proposals change the District’s rental housing landscape?, was cited by Street Sense: Yesim Sayin Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said that “there are currently 72,900 rent-controlled units in the District and if the Council enacts…
On November 19, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How COVID-19 is affecting nonprofits in the D.C. area, was cited by DCist: Before the pandemic, Rebuilding Together relied largely on volunteers — more than 1,000 each year — to do basic home repairs like fixing smoke alarms and installing safety grab bars…
On November 18, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, At-risk application patterns in D.C.’s common lottery, was cited by The DC Line: Families of at-risk students are less likely to participate in the school lottery and submit applications prior to the deadline, a new report from the D.C. Policy Center found. Even so, author Chelsea Coffin says, there…
On November 9, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, How would the “Reclaim Rent Control” proposals change the District’s rental housing landscape?, was cited by WUSA9: According to the DC Policy Center, roughly 36% of the District’s rental units are rent controlled, which amounts to around 75,000 rent-controlled apartments in D.C. But laws…
On November 10, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, How would the “Reclaim Rent Control” proposals change the District’s rental housing landscape?, was cited by DCist: If the bill passes, it would immediately subject more than 13,000 housing units to rent stabilization, most in small buildings, according to a new report from the…
On November 9, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s policy brief, How would the “Reclaim Rent Control” proposals change the District’s rental housing landscape?, was cited by Washington City Paper: The D.C. Policy Center, a business-backed think tank, released a lengthy report on the bill ahead of hearing that could spook some councilmembers. The report…
On November 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, COVID-era health care workforce capacity in Washington, D.C., was cited by The DC Line: A new report from the D.C. Policy Center examines the District’s COIVD-era health care workforce, including the geographic distribution of physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists and other health providers in the District. In…
On November 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Food access in D.C is deeply connected to poverty and transportation, was cited by Washington City Paper: Food insecurity in the District long predates the pandemic. In 2019, 10.6 percent of adults and 19.3 percent of children were food insecure, and according to…
On October 30, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: “We see this especially in D.C.,” said Yesim Sayin Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, a business-focused research and policy group, regarding the pandemic’s disproportionate blows to lower-paid workers. “The impacts…
On October 27, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Appraising the District’s rentals, was cited by DCist: Large, professionally managed apartment buildings are the most visible source of the city’s rental housing. But in the District, one third of rental stock exists in what’s called the “shadow” rental market, according to the…
On October 9, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by BisNow: D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayim Taylor said the data shows the vast majority of eviction cases have involved nonpayment of rent. “Landlords are not happy with the extension of eviction to all causes, they…
On October 7, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director, Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: That most likely reflects the District’s assumptions about how long it will take for some people to return to work at their traditional offices, said Yesim Taylor, executive director at the D.C….
On October 6, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director, Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Wall Street Journal: Already, the unemployment rate in Washington’s Wards 7 and 8, the areas east of the Anacostia, surged to 14.2% and 18.4% in August, respectively, compared with 9.3% and 12.5% a year earlier, according to D.C. government data. In Ward 2, which includes the city’s central business district, the August jobless rate was 4.7%, compared with 3.8% a year earlier. “I’m very concerned about businesses closing,“ said Yesim Sayin Taylor, founding executive…
On October 2, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s 2020 State of Business Report: Pivoting from Pandemic to Recovery, was cited by the Washington Business Journal: While every part of the region has been touched by the crisis, the chamber’s annual “State of Business” report documented especially dire effects in D.C. driven by…
On September 30, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Post: At the more moderate D.C. Policy Center, executive director Yesim Taylor argued for across-the-board cuts that would reduce each agency’s budget by perhaps 2.5 percent, rather than tax increases. “The benefit of cutting spending…
On September 30, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the DC Line: The new projections will force changes to the 2021 budget, either in the form of spending cuts or revenue increases. Although the surplus for 2020 is roughly equivalent to the newly identified revenue shortfall…
On September 27, 2020, the Director of the D.C. Policy Center’s Education Policy Initiative, Chelsea Coffin, was quoted by The 74 Million: “It’s critical to find out who those students might be,“ said Chelsea Coffin, director of the Education Policy Initiative at the D.C. Policy Center, who has studied enrollment trends in the…
On September 23, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Roughly 36 percent of D.C.’s rental housing units are rent-stabilized, was cited by the Washington Business Journal: The District hasn’t updated its rent control law in 35 years. It currently covers most apartments built before 1975 – about 75,000 units, or 36% of all units…
On September 22, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. is hard to count. Here’s where officials could target efforts for the 2020 Census, was cited by WAMU: D.C. Policy Center fellow Mike Maciag says D.C. has some specific challenges. “In D.C., we have a very transient population,” Maciag says. “Members of the military,…
On September 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, At-risk priority in D.C.’s common lottery, was cited in The 74 Million: These measures work. As noted by the D.C. Policy Center, at-risk students tend to be excluded from schools already serving lower percentages of such children, largely because existing preferences in D.C.’s common lottery…
On September 4, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s publication, The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: For example, two miles from Greenleaf Gardens, the historic Barry Farms is in the 14th year since NCI redevelopment was approved. Although residents were eventually able to assert their rights and…
On August 19, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Paycheck Protection Program in the District: Hard-hit industries receive a smaller share of loans, was cited by The DC Line: ► REPORT – ‘Paycheck Protection Program in the District: Hard-hit industries receive a smaller share of loans.’ DC Policy Center’s Sunaina Kathpalia and Yesim Sayin Taylor: “Establishments with 20-49…
On August 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How COVID-19 is affecting small businesses in D.C., was cited in an opinion piece in the Washington Post: As a local business owner who has lived and worked in the D.C. area for 35 years, I’ve seen the incredible growth of this city. Local…
On August 20, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The District’s population grows for the 14th year in a row, but at a weaker rate, was cited by The Hill: The most recent census numbers put D.C.’s population at 705,749 as of July 1, 2019, up 4,202 people from 2018. This equates to a growth rate of 0.6…
On August 20, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s work and map were cited by the Washington Business Journal: While many today are not aware of the racist roots of these policies, and would strongly oppose perpetuating racial inequity, the results are hard to argue: Our region and many others remain as segregated…
On August 12, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, State of D.C. Schools 2018-19, was cited by Forest Hills Connection: In 2018, as UDC was rolling out its four-year strategic plan, 3,359 students graduated from DC public schools and charter schools. According to the DC Policy Center, 56% of those students went on to pursue…
On August 5, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Speed cameras in D.C., was cited by Greater Greater Washington: By looking at the locations where most violations occurred, it’s clear that DC drivers’ habits began changing in March. The most frequent location of moving violation citations in February through April 2019, as…
On August 5, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Student achievement is on the rise, but critical gaps persist, was cited by The DC Line: After a quarter-century of education reform in the District — including a 1995 law authorizing public charter schools as well as mayoral control of the city-run school…
On August 4, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, At-risk priority in D.C.’s common lottery: Potential implications for access and diversity, was cited by the Washington Post: The D.C. Policy Center, a local think tank, released a study last month examining the impact that adding an at-risk preference would have on lottery results. The…
On July 20, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted in the Washington Post: Meanwhile, day-care centers are losing slots or going under. Few have enough space to serve as many children as in the past, given the need for physical distancing. Many can’t afford to reopen. “Their financial…
On July 16, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Food access in D.C is deeply connected to poverty and transportation, was cited by the American Geographical Society: In Washington D.C., food insecurity is no new phenomenon. D.C. is broken down into eight wards, shown on the map to the right. D.C. Policy Center…
On July 15, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. Voices: Sustainability of D.C. child care facilities during the pandemic, was cited by The DC Line: Amid concerns about the state of the child care sector now and in the future, the D.C. Policy Center’s Chelsea Coffin and Amanda Chu write that pandemic-related financial…
On July 14, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. Voices: Teacher retention and recruitment during the pandemic, was featured on the blog of the National Council on Teacher Quality: The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced new challenges to retaining teachers and the traditional teacher hiring process. New analysis from Chelsea Coffin and Tanaz…
On July 12, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s work was cited in the Chico Enterprise-Record: If DC were a state this would lead to the Federal government being “coerced” by being part of a state. In fact, the vast majority of DC residents do not work for the federal government: according to…
On July 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. is hard to count. Here’s where officials could target efforts for the 2020 Census, was cited by Mashable: D.C. is “becoming more and more white… It’s pretty hard to see race as a factor in the denial [of statehood]. I think it’s…
In summer 2020, the D.C. Policy Center article A timeline of the D.C. region’s COVID-19 pandemic was cited by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Read more: Timeline of COVID-19 policies, cases, and deaths in your state | Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center Related: A timeline of the D.C. region’s COVID-19 pandemic…
On June 22, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C.’s heat islands, was cited by Casey Trees: In 2017 the D.C. Policy Center published a report that added more detail to how heat affects Washington residents. It overlaid temperature with social, economic and health-related factors, as well as vegetation variability, to yield what is…
On June 19, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited in an opinion piece at the Washington Post: In 1970, our city was more than 70 percent African American, but what became of Chocolate City? In 2015, the city dropped to below 50 percent African American. It is conservatively estimated that…
On June 11, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Predominately black neighborhoods in D.C. bear the brunt of automated traffic enforcement, was cited in an op-ed at the Eno Center for Transportation: While Washington, D.C. relies heavily on automated traffic enforcement cameras, a report by the DC Policy Center found that drivers in predominantly…
On June 11, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, ARTICLE, was cited by The DC Line: A new publication from the D.C. Policy Center explores how school facilities and operations will need to adapt for DC schools to reopen. Authors Tanaz Meghjani and Chelsea Coffin posed a key question to several school leaders: “What is top of mind for you in…
On June 11, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Predominately black neighborhoods in D.C. bear the brunt of automated traffic enforcement, was cited by Vice: Speed and red light cameras are a proven, functional technology that make roads safer by slowing drivers down. They’re widely used in other countries and can also enforce parking…
On June 9, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Implementing the NEAR Act to reduce violence in D.C., was cited by NPR: Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie thinks there’s a middle ground. “I want community policing in my neighborhood, but I do not and do not condone over-policing in any neighborhood, particularly…
On June 7, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. Voices: Mental health supports during school closures, was cited by The 74 Million: And that’s just one part of the equation. As with many districts nationwide, DCPS is still determining the best way to “creatively assess” students as the new academic year…
On June 7 , 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, What is the impact of fare evasion in D.C.?, was cited by Courthouse News Service: According to the D.C. Policy Center, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority expanded funding for fare enforcement in recent years though the D.C. council only recently decriminalized fare evasion….
On May 27, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin was cited by The 74 Million: These students’ “lived experience are going to look quite different in the coming months, perhaps from income shock or doubling up on housing, stress in the household, and other ways,” said Chelsea…
On May 27, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the New York Times: “I would add to the resource issue the black population’s historically complex relationship with health care,” said Yesim Sayin Taylor, the executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, a research organization. Ward 8 has…
On May 27, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin was quoted by The 74 Million: These students’ “lived experience are going to look quite different in the coming months, perhaps from income shock or doubling up on housing, stress in the household, and other ways,” said Chelsea Coffin,…
On May 26, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Pandemic-induced unemployment has hit the District’s Hispanic, Latino, and younger workers more intensely, was cited by The Undefeated: Washington is one of a few areas, and NBA markets, that has yet to fully reopen businesses and public spaces since President Donald Trump declared…
On May 19, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s executive director, Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Post: But Yesim Taylor of the D.C. Policy Center, a more centrist think tank, said the mayor was smart not to balance the budget with higher taxes. “It’s easy to say, ‘Well, cut, cut,…
On May 16, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How many small businesses are in D.C.?, was cited by the Washington Post: The pandemic is threatening the survival of independently operated stores, restaurants, bars and other enterprises in cities with vibrant, walkable neighborhoods and soaring commercial rents. In the District alone, there…
On April 28, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited by WAMU: In 1970, the African-American population in the city stood at 71%. Five decades later, it’s less than half. Read more: After Six Decades, Ben’s Chili Bowl Faces Its Greatest Challenge Yet: Coronavirus | WAMU Related:…
On April 23, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted in The DC Line: No one with whom I spoke was surprised by the data. The numbers amplify weaknesses and inequities in the nation’s health care system. They also underscore historic discrimination experienced by people of color, especially…
On April 20, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by WAMU: But the coalition’s requests come amid a wider financial crisis for the city. The District is already expecting to have to trim the current year’s $9 billion budget by more than $600 million, and maybe as much…
On April 20, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s executive director, Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Yesim Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center, said this sort of tax relief has merit specifically because it is more broad-based, targeting an industry over specific businesses that would need…
On April 20, 2020, D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Hoffman is confident the council could structure the program stringently, building in provisions that ensure that a commercial tenant has to remain open and employ a certain number of District residents to score…
On April 8, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Pushing through complacency to fight health disparities in D.C.’s African American communities, was cited by DCist: In the District, black residents compose about 46 percent of the population, with white residents representing about 1 percentage point less than that, per recent U.S. Census…
On April 8, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, COVID-19 pandemic and the District of Columbia: What to expect?, was cited by WAMU: But even furloughs and two consecutive years of $600 million cuts might not be enough, according to an analysis by the D.C. Policy Center think tank. In the wake of…
On April 6, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited by American Renaissance: By the time he died, Marion Barry was a relic, because after 2000, the city began gentrifying. Whites returned. Crime dropped. Property values rose. Journalists, of course, mourned: “D.C., Long ‘Chocolate City,’ Becoming More…
On April 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Appraising the District’s rentals, was cited by Urban Turf: DC Policy Center’s latest rental report builds on prior analysis of the city’s mismatched housing market. Read more: The DC Rental Affordability Mismatch | Urban Turf Related: Appraising the District’s rentals | D.C. Policy Center
On April 2, 2020, chapter four of the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Appraising the District’s rentals, was excerpted by Greater Greater Washington: The DC Policy Center has published a new report, Appraising the District’s rentals, on rental housing in the District, and how rentals can help keep housing affordable provide more economically inclusive. We…
On April 2, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Appraising the District’s rentals, was cited by Urban Turf: In addition to exploring how the concept of Inclusionary Conversions could work in DC, DC Policy Center’s latest report gives a comprehensive snapshot of the city’s rental market. Read more: 34,000 Units in 20 Years: DC’s Rental Market, by…
On April 1, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Appraising the District’s rentals, was featured by Urban Turf: A new report by the DC Policy Center suggests there may only be one way to reach DC’s affordable housing production targets. Released Wednesday, the extensive report takes stock of the city’s rental housing, putting forth the…
On March 26, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, COVID-19 pandemic and the District of Columbia: What to expect?, was cited by the DC Line: Thus far, the long-term budget impact has drawn minimal attention. The hue and cry has been for economic relief and public health protections. Echoing the view of…
On March 26, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Food access in D.C is deeply connected to poverty and transportation, was cited by Eater DC: While Maketto’s efforts will be focused on Ward 6 residents, Bruner-Yang says the model could be applied to help out areas with more dire needs, too. Data…
On March 25, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, A timeline of the D.C. region’s COVID-19 pandemic, was cited by Urban Turf: DC proper’s A-grade reflects a 60% decrease in the average distance travelled by city residents. This data is as of March 21st, by which time the city was under a state of…
On March 20, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s Executive Director, Yesim Sayin Taylor, was quoted by the Washington Post: Officials and analysts said state and local governments should move quickly to provide small businesses with grants, loans and relaxed regulations to prevent layoffs. “The most important thing that government can do right…
On March 12, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: With organizers canceling a slew of conventions, sporting events and concerts, and workers increasingly urged to stay home, there’s no telling yet what sort of impact the pandemic will have on the District’s coffers. And…
On March 10, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s articles, Mapping segregation in D.C. and The rise and demise of racially restrictive covenants in Bloomingdale, were cited by the Equal Rights Center: DC’s geographic racial divide and corresponding disparities did not happen by chance but are the result of a long history of discrimination against…
On March 9, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools was cited in the Washington Post: School quality is on the rise in the District. The recent D.C. Policy Center report on the State of D.C. Schools makes plain that our traditional public and public charter schools alike have outpaced other cities…
On March 4, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Appraising the District’s rentals, was cited by City Observatory: Too often, our debates about housing policy are shaped by inaccurate pictures of how the housing market really works. A new report from the D.C. Policy Center provides a remarkably clear and detailed picture of the…
On March 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Single-family zoning and neighborhood characteristics in the District of Columbia, was cited by WAMU: In the D.C. region, vast swaths of residential areas are zoned exclusively for single-family homes, the most space-intensive and costly form of housing. For example, almost 90% of residential land in…
On February 28, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The economic costs of land use regulations, was cited by Urban Turf: Other reportage (and some Democratic presidential candidates) have also suggested that dismantling some regulations could create housing price relief by adding to supply. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has tied current efforts to amend the Comprehensive Plan to ambitious housing…
On February 27, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Where the Washington region achieves walkable density, was cited by the GW Hatchet: GW sits in an area of the city with some of the best roadways to walk to and from nearby amenities, a study from the D.C. Policy Center released last…
On February 26, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools, was cited in The 74 Million: The District’s public education system is now a national model, and a recent report outlines how far the city’s schools have come. The “State of D.C. Schools,” released by the D.C. Policy…
On February 24, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, What is the impact of fare evasion in D.C.?, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Metro officials say fare evasion is a big problem, and have pushed back hard against a recent DC move to decriminalize fare evasion. But a new study from the DC…
On February 24, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-2019 State of D.C. Schools, was cited by The Uptake: Specifically, in Washington, D.C this divide has presented itself in males of color. In 2015 Black and Hispanic boys made up 43% of the student enrollment, yet their test scores and graduation rates…
On February 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center was quoted in an opinion piece published by the Washington Business Journal: Collectively, these initiatives have the potential to create a perfect storm of good individual intentions that have the opposite effect — a halt to housing development. In fact, the warning signs are…
On February 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm, was cited in an op-ed in the Washington Post: In 1941, D.C.’s nascent housing authority used eminent domain to force 23 remaining land owners from their homes for the construction of Barry Farm Dwellings; as is commonly…
On February 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s articles, Where the Washington region achieves walkable density and Roughly 36 percent of D.C.’s rental housing units are rent-stabilized, were featured by City Observatory: 4. Mapping Walkable Density. DW Rowlands has mapped walkable density in 17 of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas. Her maps compare…
On February 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, What is the impact of fare evasion in D.C.?, was cited by Washington City Paper: The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has suggested that more people are piggy-backing or tailgating since the D.C. Council decriminalized fare evasion in July 2019. (It should be noted that…
On February 19, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Policy Director Kathryn Zickuhr was quoted by WAMU: Not all app-based gigging opportunities are created equal, either. In a study that looked at the activity millions of Chase checking accounts from 2012 to 2018, the web-platform economy showed growth overall. Yet earnings for jobs in transportation (like…
On February 19, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Fellow D.W. Rowlands’ article, Where the Washington region achieves walkable density, was crossposted at Greater Greater Washington. Read more: These maps show where the Washington region achieves walkable density | Greater Greater Washington
On February 4, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Taking Stock of the District’s Housing Stock, was cited by WAMU: But while the revenue bump is good news for D.C.’s coffers, the influx of high earners is making it harder for lower-earning families to find homes, according to the D.C. Policy Center….
On February 3, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm, was cited by WPGC: Barry Farm Dwellings has existed since the 1940s, and the neighborhood includes the rich history as a home to African Americans after the Civil War, and a place that helped birth go-go. Read more: Barry Farm Is…
On January 31, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools, was highlighted in an op-ed in The DC Line: Mayor Bowser’s administration has made historic investments in our education system designed to better serve students across the city. A recent report from the D.C. Policy Center suggests that those investments…
On January 31, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools, was highlighted in an op-ed in the Washington Post: Our once-struggling public schools now are beacons of innovation and improvement for the nation. A new report by the D.C. Policy Center shows how far we have come. As…
On January 28, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Dr. Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Local real estate attorneys previously dubbed such a change “an administrative nightmare,” and it drew opposition from the D.C. Building Industry Association. Developers frequently rely on LLCs in acquiring and managing properties. Some worried…
On January 21, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center Education Policy Initiative Director, Chelsea Coffin, was quoted by Education Week: “I think [the expansion of pre-K] got a lot of momentum for families to stay,” said Chelsea Coffin, the director of the education policy initiative at the D.C. Policy Center, a nonpartisan think…
On January 21, 2020, the Director of the D.C. Policy Center Education Policy Initiative, Chelsea Coffin, was quoted by Education Week: “I think [the expansion of pre-K] got a lot of momentum for families to stay,” said Chelsea Coffin, the director of the education policy initiative at the D.C. Policy Center, a…
On January 17, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools, was cited by Education Dive: A report on Washington D.C. public schools by the D.C. Policy Center finds enrollment has increased steadily since 2010, after decades of decline. Between school years 2014-2015 and 2018-2019, enrollment for pre-K through 12th grade…
On January 17, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Predominately black neighborhoods in D.C. bear the brunt of automated traffic enforcement, was cited by The Philadelphia Citizen: My analysis of moving violation citations and crash data suggests that the racial geography of D.C. does play into the enforcement of traffic violations,” wrote…
On January 17, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools, was cited by Politico: More parents choose D.C.’s public schools over other alternatives, though achievement gaps persist for students of color, according to a new analysis from the D.C. Policy Center. Read more: Morning Education | Politico Related:…
On January 16, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Taking Stock of the District’s Housing Stock, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Multifamily affordable housing units are more difficult to find, as only 31% of the available housing units in the District were “potentially” affordable to families of four, according to a 2018 report…
On January 16, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, 2018-19 State of D.C. Schools, was cited by WAMU: Enrollment is growing in D.C. public schools and students are scoring higher on standardized tests, but the city school system remains deeply segregated and achievement gaps between student groups persist, according to a report…
On January 14, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970, was cited by DCist: A new analysis published by the D.C. Policy Center visualizes just how the broader area’s demographics have changed over the past half-century or so. “In 1970, almost everyone lived in…
On January 14, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970, was cited by 730 DC: The gentrification #DontMuteDC fights is connected with the diversification of DC’s suburbs, a long process visualized and historicized by DC Policy Center. Read more: We’re #1 | 730 DC Related:…
On January 13, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Fellow D.W. Rowlands’ article, How the region’s racial and ethnic demographics have changed since 1970, was crossposted at Greater Greater Washington. Read more: These maps show how racial demographics have changed in the region since 1970 | Greater Greater Washington
On January 6, 2020, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Physical activity and gym access by neighborhood in D.C., was cited by WAMU: Physical activity levels tend to vary widely throughout the city, with the lowest rates in Wards 7 and 8. In those two wards — which also have the most residents living below…
On January 6, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by Bacon’s Rebellion: Thus, Northern Virginia has experienced an influx of corporate headquarters with no connection whatsoever to defense, intelligence or IT — Hilton Hotels, Volkswagen USA, and Nestle USA. Meanwhile, Maryland lost Discovery and had to fight…
On January 4, 2020, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Post: “When large headquarters move to the metropolitan area, they almost never consider Maryland and D.C.,” said Yesim Sayin Taylor, executive director of the D.C. Policy Center. “They invariably locate in Northern Virginia, and that’s…
On December 27, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The best way to build a Purple Line link between Bethesda and Tysons, was cross-posted by Greater Greater Washington. Read more: Here’s the best way to build a Purple Line link between Bethesda and Tysons | Greater Greater Washington Related: The best way…
On December 18, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Physical activity and gym access by neighborhood in D.C., was cited by DCist: The divide between the District’s most active and least active neighborhoods is stark, as illustrated by data from the 500 Cities Project and analyzed by the D.C. Policy Center in 2017. The…
On December 10, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Single-family zoning and neighborhood characteristics in the District of Columbia, was cited by DCist: Bowser has not proposed banning single-family zoning, which takes up three-quarters of all tax lots in the city, according to the D.C. Policy Center. “It would not be popular” in…
On November 25, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: On July 9, 2019 At-Large Councilmember David Grosso introduced the Safe Passage to School Expansion Act, which would create an Office of Safe Passage and provide shuttle buses…
On November 15, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The impact of occupational licensing requirements in D.C., was cited by The DC Line’s District Links newsletter: REPORT – ‘The impact of occupational licensing requirements in D.C.’ D.C. Policy Center’s Yesim Sayin Taylor: “The District of Columbia has many factors in its favor making it…
On November 13, 2019, Fellow D.W. Rowlands’ article on the region’s changing incomes was cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington. Read more: These maps show how incomes have changed in the region since 1980 | Greater Greater Washington
On November 12, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. is behind the rest of metropolitan area in business ownership rates for women, was cited in the Tysons Reporter links roundup, Tuesday Morning Notes: Women-Owned Businesses Booming in Falls Church — “Across the Washington metropolitan area, the highest rates of business ownership for…
On November 8, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s 2019 State of Business Report was cited by the Washington Blade: While the D.C. economy is stable and remains a strong employment center in the region, the city is struggling to retain the small and moderate size businesses generated during recent boom years. In…
On November 8, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Growing labor demand in D.C. is driving up wages, was cited by Curbed DC: If you’re thinking about moving to D.C., think hard. Employment opportunities abound, but living costs are high. The weather can get brutally hot in the summer (don’t even get us started on…
On November 7, 2019, D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor was interviewed on The Barras Report: See more: The Barras Report: DC Policy Center
On November 7, 2019, D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor’s testimony to the D.C. Council was cited by WAMU: At one point during the hearing, economist Yesim Sayin Taylor contended that McDuffie and Allen’s bills would amount to little more than bandage solutions if larger changes aren’t made to the city’s business…
On November 4, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. is hard to count. Here’s where officials could target efforts for the 2020 Census., was cited in The DC Line’s District Links newsletter: REPORT – ‘D.C. is hard to count. Here’s where officials could target efforts for the 2020 Census.’ D.C. Policy Center’s Mike…
On October 29, 2019, fellow Sarah Shoenfeld’s article, The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm was linked by the Washington Business Journal: For the activists pressing for the historic designation, a vote in their favor would represent a major victory in forcing the developers to better honor the property’s history — in 1867,…
On October 31, 2019, fellow Sarah Shoenfeld’s article, The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm was linked by the Washington Business Journal: However, a majority of the nine-member board did signal that they’d be willing to approve that request, if the developers can’t rearrange their plans to better honor the property’s…
On October 31, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center executive director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by Washington Business Journal: D.C. collects anywhere from $40 million to $65 million per year for its “ballpark fund” to afford those payments, budget documents show. Taxes on Nats tickets and concessions generate anywhere from $15 million…
On October 31, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Taking Stock of the District’s Housing Stock, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Other worthwhile additions include: A strong acknowledgement that new construction has favored one-bedroom units over multifamily units (though it’s necessary to build more smaller units as well to free up family-sized…
On October 29, 2019, Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor’s article, Land Value Tax: Can it work in the District? was cited in a link roundup on The Hill is Home: An interesting blog post from the DC Policy Center on Land Value Tax and what difference it could make. Read more: Hill Buzz | The Hill…
On October 28, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Made in D.C.: Which areas have the highest share of D.C.-born residents, was cited by the Washington Post: To be fair, recent census data shows that the majority of current D.C. residents are, indeed, transplants. Only about 28 percent of adults living in D.C….
On October 22, 2019, D.C. Policy Center executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: “Lots of people are saying ‘where’s the money to build it?’ But that’s far less important … because the resources are in the land,” said Yesim Taylor, executive director of business-backed think tank…
On October 22, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Land Value Tax: Can it Work in the District?, was featured by Urban Turf’s links roundup: A DC land value tax would accelerate density where it exists, not where it doesn’t. — (Y.S. Taylor/DCPC) Read more: Tuesday’s Must Reads | UrbanTurf Related: Land Value Tax:…
On October 15, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, State of Business 2019: Building a Competitive City, was cited by the Washington Business Journal: In D.C., the tax burden on businesses has long been a subject of consternation, playing a role in driving businesses to flee to the Northern Virginia suburbs in…
On October 10, 2019, Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor discussed community land trusts as a guest on the Kojo Nnamdi Show: The cost of living in Washington, D.C. is on the rise and longtime residents are getting priced out of their homes and neighborhoods. The Douglass Community Land Trust recently made its first property…
On October 4, 2019 the D.C. Policy Center-produced report, 2019 State of Business: Building a Competitive City, was cited by The DC Line’s District Links roundup: NEW – The DC Chamber of Commerce’s 2019 State of Business Report is out, produced by the D.C. Policy Center. The full 56-page report focuses on how the District…
On October 4, 2019, the 2019 State of Business Report written by the D.C. Policy Center was featured by the Washington Business Journal: According to a report prepared for the event by the business-backed D.C. Policy Center, the District added more than 5,000 new companies between 2010 and 2018, a 15% increase. But…
On October 3, 2019, Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was featured as a member of the 2019 class of Women Who Mean Business by Washington Business Journal: Back in her days working for the D.C. government, Yesim Sayin Taylor remembers thinking that the business community all too often came forward with the same repetitive…
On October 2, 2019, the the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, was cited by USA Today: A new report on school access by the D.C. Policy Center shows hundreds of students can’t physically get to the school that would best suit…
On October 2, 2019, two D.C. Policy Center articles were cited by the Brookings Institution: The demolition of a public housing complex in the nation’s capital has sparked a fight over something more than displacement and gentrification: It has come to represent a larger struggle over the preservation of Black history, culture,…
On October 2, 2019, Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin discussed the D.C. Policy Center report Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, as a guest on the Kojo Nnamdi Show: About half of students in D.C. charter and traditional public schools are labeled “at-risk,” meaning they…
On October 1, 2019, coverage of the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, was featured in Greater Greater Washington’s Breakfast Links roundup: Many at-risk DC students live far from help: Many DC neighborhoods with the highest concentration of at-risk students are without easy…
On September 30, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, was cited by Washington City Paper: New study explores how hard it is to travel to schools that help close the achievement gap for at-risk students. [D.C. Policy Center] Read more:…
On September 30, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, was covered by WUSA 9: Now, a new report by the D.C. Policy Center on school access shows hundreds of students can’t even get to the school that would best suit…
On September 30, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Access to schools that level the playing field for D.C.’s at-risk students, was covered by DCist: Several public elementary and middle schools in D.C. have a strong track record of helping students classified as at-risk improve their learning outcomes—but many neighborhoods with the…
On September 18, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was quoted by the Washington Business Journal: Yesim Taylor, the executive director of the business-backed D.C. Policy Center, is similarly bullish on the legislation’s potential to help companies “facing ever-thinning margins and steep competition from electronic commerce.” But she…
On September 18, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Twenty years after the Revitalization Act, the District of Columbia is a different city, was cited by DCist: But there is one other element of the court system that does have a connection to statehood: D.C. is the only jurisdiction where a U.S….
On September 18, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s report, Landscape of Diversity in D.C. Public Schools, was cited by Tulsa World: Columnist Ginnie Graham’s piece used a report issued by the National Women’s Law Center that analyzed dress codes and violations among 21 Washington, D.C. public schools and charter schools. A D.C. Policy Center report in…
On September 6, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The history and evolution of Anacostia’s Barry Farm, was cited by Urban Turf: The Historic Preservation Review Board is expected to rule later this month on whether to grant landmark status to the remaining units at Barry Farm. Earlier this week, development partner…
On September 6, 2019 the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Building the ecosystem for Black women entrepreneurs in D.C., was cited by The DC Line’s District Links roundup: “Just 18 percent of all business establishments in D.C. are reported to be owned solely by women, and only 27 percent are owned by people…
On September 5, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Education Policy Initiative Director Chelsea Coffin was interviewed by Newsy: “I see it the most in housing developments that are ongoing in the pipeline. We really are seeing a lot more one- and two-bedroom units being built and not as much family housing.” Coffin said….
On September 4, 2019 the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C.’s disconnect between citywide enrollment growth and neighborhood change, was covered by Greater Greater Washington: A new report from the DC Policy Center shows that school-aged populations and school enrollment in the District’s neighborhoods are “decoupling.” While demand for high-quality schools has historically driven…
On August 29, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Made in D.C.: Which areas have the highest share of D.C.-born residents, was cited by Streetsense: In the 1950s, the Southwest part of D.C. underwent huge gentrification that forced 23,000 people to be relocated into public housing east of the Anacostia River, said…
On August 29, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Income inequality and economic mobility in D.C., was cited by the Guardian: Muthiah’s organization serves roughly 400,000 individuals in the DC region, about a third of whom are children, and she said her group has witnessed the effects of growing inequity in the…
On August 28, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s Chelsea Coffin authored a commentary published by The DC Line: The 2019-20 school year will mark the 12th enrollment increase in a row for DC’s traditional public and public charter schools. This year, the city’s schools are expected to add 2,800 students to classes…
On August 21, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Discriminatory housing practices in the District: A brief history, was cited by DCist: She asked a friend to call the company back with a Capitol Hill zip code instead. When the customer service representative approved the request for service, Morgan decided to alert…
On August 17, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Transportation is more than traffic: Measuring the impact of development on walkability, was cited by Planetizen: “In June, the D.C. Department of Transportation published new guidelines for reviewing the transportation impacts of major real estate developments,” according to an article by D. Taylor Reich. “These new guidelines…
On August 15, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Transportation is more than traffic: Measuring the impact of development on walkability, was cited by Streetsblog CAL’s links roundup: Transportation is more than traffic: Measuring walkability (D.C. Policy Center) Read more: Today’s Headlines | Streetsblog CAL Related: Transportation is more than traffic: Measuring…
On August 15, 2019, a version of the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Transportation is more than traffic: Measuring the impact of development on walkability, was crossposted at Greater Greater Washington. Read more: These new development rules are made for walking | Greater Greater Washington Related: Transportation is more than traffic: Measuring the impact…
On August 13, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, How the D.C. area’s population density has changed since 1970, was cited by Curbed DC: The population density of the D.C. region has gone up but also spread farther out during the past half-century, according to a recent analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data by…
On August 13 2019, a map from the D.C. Policy Center’s article, The history of Deanwood’s local foodscape, was cited by Greater Greater Washington: Map reprinted from DC Policy Center: “Grocery stores operating in Deanwood between 1925 and 1960. This map was created based on stores that were reported in the Overbeck oral history interviews…
On August 12, 2019, Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor’s visualization of housing types and density in Ward 3 vs Ward 6 was cited in a link roundup on UrbanTurf. Read more: Monday’s Must Reads | UrbanTurf Related: D.C. single family neighborhood density: Ward 3 versus Ward 6 | D.C. Policy Center
On August 9, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, A decade of demographic change in D.C.: Which neighborhoods have changed the most?, was cited in the Washington Post: Yet Washington is also the most rapidly gentrifying metropolitan area in the United States. Since 2000, 22 percent of D.C. census tracts have seen a large…
On August 8, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, D.C. single family neighborhood density: Ward 3 versus Ward 6, was crossposted by Greater Greater Washington. Read more: See the difference density makes in these two parts of the District | Greater Greater Washington Related: D.C. single family neighborhood density: Ward 3 versus Ward 6…
On August 8 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Goodbye to Chocolate City, was cited by a Center for American Progress report, Systemic Inequality: Displacement, Exclusion, and Segregation: Nowhere are the effects of gentrification more noticeable than the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Between 1970 and 2015, Black residents declined from 71 percent of…
On August 1, 2019, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, Single-family zoning and neighborhood characteristics in the District of Columbia, was cited in Greater Greater Washington: Conveniently, where the framework element says you should build, and where it says you should conserve character, roughly tracks with where in the city you are legally…
On July 26, 2019, Fellow D.W. Rowlands’ article on the region’s changing population density was cross-posted on Greater Greater Washington. Read more: These beautiful maps show how the region’s population density changed since 1970 | Greater Greater Washington
On October 10, 2018, Rachel M. Cohen at Washington City Paper wrote about Chelsea Coffin’s report “How D.C.’s Young Families May Shape Public School Enrollment.” The D.C. Auditor projects school enrollment to grow by 12,000 to 17,000 students in the next 10 years, with the bulk of that growth occurring in the…
On August 14, 2017, Washington City Paper covered Senior Fellow Kate Rabinowitz’s piece on nightlife churn: A new report from the D.C. Policy Center draws several conclusions based on restaurant openings and closings over the past several years. The biggest? The lion’s share of the city’s nightlife boom may be in the…
On April 4, WAMU’s Martin Di Caro interviewed D.C. Policy Center Fellow D.W. Rowlands on whether a $2 flat fare can save Metro: Metro is most often compared to the New York subway system, which charges a flat fare of $2.75, but the nation’s busiest system handles six million daily trips –…